Born in 1949 in the Panama Canal Zone,Richard Prince grew up in the Boston suburbthat his parents settled in five years later.In 1973, he moved to New York, where heimmersed himself in the downtown music andart scenes. While working in the tear-sheetdepartment of Time Life, he began tophotograph the discarded advertising pages,carefully cropping out all copy until he wasleft with only formulaic images of consumeraspiration such as watches, fountain pens,interior decor, logos, and fashion models.He subsequently focused his camera on aseries of stock figures so hopelessly clichédthat they can be described as one-wordarchetypes: cowboys, girlfriends, andentertainers. These appropriated imageswere displayed individually or sometimesgrouped within a single frame in a format thatthe artist refers to as a “gang.” Simultaneously,Prince began to appropriate old jokes fromthe annals of borscht-belt humor, pairing themwith renderings of unrelated, equally raunchycartoons or spelling them out on otherwiseempty, monochrome backgrounds.

As his career has progressed, Prince hasbrought an increasingly expressionisticsensibility to bear on his appropriated imageryand texts, producing resolutely painterlycanvases. Although still present, the jokes arenow muted by gestural fields of layered paintand, in some cases, are part of compositionscontaining snippets of scribbled drawings orcollaged bank checks. A similar developmentcan be marked in Prince’s sculptural works. HisHoods—painted muscle-car hoods, which eithersit on pedestals or hang, relieflike, from thewall—initially sported a slick, commercial finish.Now, their surfaces are hand-painted, matte,and almost atmospheric in appearance. In 2003the artist premiered his Nurses, a series ofcanvases derived from the pulpy cover designsof medical romance novels and rendered indripping, lurid colors save for each nurse’swhite uniform and surgical mask. Prince’slatest body of work focuses on the paintingsof venerated Abstract Expressionist artistWillem de Kooning and blend elements fromde Kooning’s famousWomen paintings withfigures cut from magazines—creating works

< RICHARD PRINCE >

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ERichard Prince, 2005Photo by the artist

that are hybrids of both men and women, andphotographs and paintings.

In recent years Prince has drawn inspirationfrom the small-town milieu of his current basein upstate New York, which he has documentedin a series of original photographs thatcharacterize the local vernacular: backyardbasketball hoops, above-ground swimmingpools, rusting vehicles, and the like. The moveupstate allowed Prince to extend his practice ofcreating environmental installations, previousexamples of which include the SpiritualAmerica gallery in downtown Manhattan(1983–84) and the First House installation inLos Angeles (1993). In yet another act ofappropriation Prince transformed a ranch-styleresidence in Rensselaerville into his SecondHouse (2001–07), an installation designedspecifically to showcase a suite of Hoods andrelated works. Camouflaged as a perpetualwork in progress—the exterior clad in exposedinsulation material, and the interior walls andceilings stripped to the dry wall—the houseeasily resembled other dwellings in thisdepressed corner of Albany County. SecondHouse was damaged when lightning struck thebuilding and started a fire, and the artist iscurrently working on creating a new structurefor the site. In addition, a private library of rarebooks and first editions and a fully operationalbody shop are part of Prince’s network ofprojects upstate.

“My first photographs showed living rooms, . . . lots of living rooms and that was important. This was not my livingroom. And what was more interesting, this was really not anybody’s living room. That was the reason why I startedto rephotograph the advertising images. There was no author of these images. It was set up. It was overdeterminatedand it did not have a name behind it.”

< EARLY PHOTOGRAPHIC APPROPRIATION >

In 1977 Richard Prince was working forTime Life, clipping articles from magazinesfor staff writers. What would remain were theadvertisements showing luxury goods, such asexpensive watches, lighters, and fine leatherproducts. As he collected and comparedmyriad examples of product ads, Prince beganto notice certain repeated gestures, visualdevices, and attitudes, which resulted fromthe fact that separate companies withcomparable products employed remarkablysimilar advertising strategies. The discovery ofthese patterns gave him the formal basis forhis art.

Prince took the radical step of rephotographingexisting photographic images from ads inmagazines and calling them his own. With aclick of the shutter the images became his—a deceptively casual gesture that changedthe rules of art, making it possible toappropriate someone else’s creation as yourown. In subsequent years, Prince repeatedthis action using other products and fashionmodels. He excised out all identifying text orlogos, cropped and enlarged images, andrephotographed black-and-white photos in

color and vice versa. He compared the variousoptions to making an 8-track recording.

Prince’s first photographic appropriation,Untitled (living rooms), comprises a quartet ofadvertising images from the New York TimesMagazine showing elaborately appointed livingrooms. Taken from an advertising campaignby a well-known furniture manufacturer, thephotos are all similarly proportioned andperfectly suited to the proportions of Prince’s35mm slides. Their compressed, horizontalformat emphasizes similar arrangements ofplush sofas, well-styled coffee tables, designercarpets, and decorative accoutrements. Thoughstylistically different—colonial, contemporary,country chic, and urban modern—the imagesall describe an upper-class lifestyle.

Prince’s counterfeit photos reveal that productsare sold by means of visual codes that appealto cultural stereotypes, prejudices, desires, andfears. This is the truth he probes in Untitled(living rooms) and the entire ensuing series ofrephotographed works from 1977 to 1984.

Untitled (living rooms), 1977. Four Ektacolor photographs, edition of 10, 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cm) each

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What do you notice?

Make a list of similarities anddifferences between these images.Discuss your findings. Which listturns out to be longer?

What techniques are used to attractyour attention?

What points of view, lifestyles, andvalues are represented in thesephotos?

Prince separated these photosof living rooms from theiraccompanying advertising copy.Write the copy that you thinkoriginally accompanied these images.What tone would you use? Whatdescriptive words and phrases shouldbe included?

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS• One of the reasons Prince was attracted to these images of livingrooms was because they did not have advertising text superimposedon them. In subsequent works he was careful to crop all of the textout of his photos. Removing the text from advertisements allows usto see them in alternate ways. Try this for yourself. Cut two pieces ofheavy paper into 2-inch-wide right angles. By moving these papersover a magazine ad, you will be able to crop out the text. Discusshow the meaning and impact changes when you do this?

• Prince called attention to patterns in advertising images—how thesame arrangement, gesture, or pose could be found in various adseven for different companies and products. Thumb throughmagazines and look for patterns. Begin to clip and file these adstogether. When you have collected a few, pin them up and beginto discuss what you have noticed and your theories on why thesestrategies are repeated.

• In 1977, when Prince took these photos, digital cameras werenot available. With a digital camera you can easily try your ownrephotographing experiments. Begin by gathering a wide array ofmagazines spanning various subjects from fashion to fly-fishing.Find an advertising photo that appeals to you and will fill yourcamera’s viewfinder. Frame the image so that no text appears andthen rephotograph it. Once your photo is downloaded into acomputer you can apply some of Prince’s other alterations such ascropping and changing the color balance or focus. Print the photoand compare and contrast the two images. Describe how the processof rephotographing has altered the impact and message.To whom does the new image belong? The advertiser, the magazine,the photographer who originally took it, or you? Explain.

• Choose another product: pens, watches, cars, shoes, jewelry, etc.Then go through magazines and tear out ads for that product.When you have a sizeable collection, pin them up and see if youcan find any patterns that tell you more about the way in whichthese objects are marketed.

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Show: Untitled (living rooms), 1977Four Ektacolor photographs, edition of 1020 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cm) each

< COWBOYS >

“The pictures I went after, ‘stole,’ were too good to betrue. They were about wishful thinking, public picturesthat happen to appear in the advertising sections of mass-market magazines, pictures not associated with anauthor. . . . It was their look I was interested in. I wantedto re-present the closest thing to the real thing”

In the early 1980s Richard Prince began toexhibit examples from his Cowboys in whichhe rephotographed Marlboro cigarette ads,cropping out all text and framing them like fineart. In doing so he had identified a rich symbolin American culture that embodied adventure,self-reliance, and rugged individuality.

Beginning in the 1950s Marlboro ads featuredcowboys riding through the wide-open terrainof the Wild West. The cowboy was instantlyrecognizable in denim, leather chaps, boots,spurs, and Stetson hat. Almost exclusivelywhite, he is portrayed as handsome, weathered,and fit. Both a role model and sex symbol, thecowboy appeals to men and women alike. Bythe mid-1960s the Marlboro Man, as this figurebecame known, was so recognizable andbrand-identified that Philip Morris was able todrop all direct references to cigarettes in its adsin favor of subtly inviting smokers to come, andbe part of, the epic Western landscape of“Marlboro Country.”

According to Prince, “I started taking picturesof the cowboys. You don’t see them out inpublic anymore—you can’t ride down a highway

and see them on a billboard. But at TimeLife, I was working with seven or eightmagazines, and Marlboro had ads in almostall of them. Every week, I’d see one and be like,‘Oh, that’s mine. Thank you.’ It’s sort of likebeachcombing.”

Prince’s Cowboy series makes the most of thelush, high-budget, art-directed aesthetic of theadvertising campaign. After eliminating thetext and enlarging the image, the artist didlittle to these already gorgeous pictures. Theystand on their own as relics of an imagined,individualistic culture.

While Prince never moralizes, the Cowboyphotos origins in ads designed to lure everyoneand anyone to a life of addiction is everpresent. These cowboys may have beenintended to emanate an image of health andvirility, but that delusion was later shatteredwhen two Marlboro models dying of lungcancer very publicly decried Philip Morris forpromoting cigarette consumption.

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Untitled (cowboy), 1989. Ektacolor photograph,edition of 2, 50 x 70 inches (127 x 177.8 cm)

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What words come to mind when youview this image?

Discuss the qualities associated withthis photograph that might beattractive to a consumer.

In its original form Prince’s image waspart of a magazine ad that alsoincluded a slogan and picture of apack of Marlboro cigarettes. Howdoes the impact of the image changeafter it is taken from magazine page,cropped, enlarged, framed, andplaced on the gallery or museumwall? Discuss.

This Marlboro advertising campaignwas one of the most successful inhistory. What attributes do you thinkcontributed to this success? Whatqualities associated with cowboyswould be attractive to an advertiser?How has Prince changed themessage?

The photos we find in print ads areintended to help us not only identifythe product but also identify with thetarget audience who will buy and useit. Who do you think would be theintended audience for this ad? Howcan you tell?

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS• Cigarette advertisers try to glamorize their product with positiveassociations—including promises that smoking will make you cool,attractive to the opposite sex, or successful—but the truth is thatsmoking will just make you sick.

You can make your own "true ad." Just look through magazines foran ad that you can transform by making it truthful. Then redraw yourown ad to show the true effects of smoking.

Visit www.costkids.org/trueads/trueadframeset.htm to view true adssubmitted by other kids.

• Americans are bombarded with images from ads. The averageperson sees at least between 400 and 600 ads per day.

Look through several magazines and find an ad that appeals to you.Record your responses to the following questions suggested by theCenter for Media Literacy:

Who created this message?What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?How might different people understand this messagedifferently than me?What values, lifestyles, and points of view are represented in,or omitted from, this message?Why is this message being sent?

Share the ad you chose and your responses with your classmates.Looking carefully at media messages will help to make you a moreinformed consumer.

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Show: Untitled (cowboy), 1989Ektacolor photograph, edition of 250 x 70 inches (127 x 177.8 cm)

Can a joke be a painting? Can a painting be ajoke? In 1984 Richard Prince began redrawingone-line gag cartoons from the New Yorkermagazine on small pieces of paper. These worksdared anyone to take them seriously as art, andwere the antithesis of the expressionisticpainting and sculpture that was being producedat the time.

According to Prince, “Artists were castingsculptures in bronze, making huge paintings,talking about prices and clothes and cars andspending vast amounts of money. So I wrotejokes on little pieces of paper and sold them for$10 each. One dealer bought two and asked fora 10% discount. So I decided that every sixmonths I would double the prices. All this waspossible because no one was looking at mywork. That’s a fairly good position sometimes.You can get away with a lot of things.”

Like advertising images, cartoons reflect culturaltastes, desires, and prejudices. Prince’s first

appropriated jokes and cartoons are ratherstraightforward hand-drawn copies of cartoonsby Whitney Darrow Jr., but he soon beganinterjecting an autobiographical tone by mixing,matching, and appropriating new captions. Hereplaced the cartoons’ original captions withclassic one-liners from popular stand-up comics:“What a kid I was. I remember practicing theviolin in front of a roaring fire. My old manwalked in. He was furious. We didn’t have afireplace”; “I never had a penny to my nameso I changed my name”; and so on.

Jokes have provided Prince with another wayto extend his practice of transforming familiarelements of pop culture so that we see themin a new light. In his work, jokes become morethan a lighthearted exchange and also revealattitudes and tensions that are usually buriedbeneath the surface of social interactions.

< JOKES AND CARTOONS >

“The jokes came out of drawing the cartoons. I wanted todraw and I liked the way certain cartoons were drawn.So I decided to redraw the ones I liked. This was 1985. Iwas living in Los Angeles. I drew a lot of Whitney Darrowcartoons. He was actually a friend of Jackson Pollock. . . .I picked out about a dozen jokes . . . ones that werefamiliar, the ones that get retold, and wrote them out,by hand on small pieces of paper. Paper and pencil. Pencilon paper.”

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Tell Me Everything, 1987. Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas,56 x 48 inches (142.2 x 121.9 cm). Skarstedt Collection, New York

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What is your response to this work?How is it similar to works of art youare already familiar with? In whatways is it different from them?

Describe the artistic choices thatPrince made in creating this work.Do these choices meet your personalcriteria for a successful work of art ornot? Explain.

Prince said that he “wrote jokes onlittle pieces of paper and sold themfor $10 each.” Some people mightagree that this is an artistic act, othersmight not. Debate this issue in yourclassroom.

According to the artist, “All this waspossible because no one was lookingat my work. That’s a fairly goodposition sometimes. You can getaway with a lot of things.” Whatmight he have meant by thisstatement? Why can it sometimes bea good thing if people are not payingattention to your creative efforts?

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS• Over the years Prince’s repertoire of jokes has grown to over 100,including:

“What a kid I was. I remember practicing the violin in front of aroaring fire. My old man walked in. He was furious. We didn’t have afireplace.”

“I never had a penny to my name so I changed my name.”

And the one he used for the painting Tell Me Everything:

“I went to see a psychiatrist. He said, ‘Tell me everything.’ I did, andnow he’s doing my act.”

Although we may laugh at a joke, it is sometimes difficult to describeexactly what is causing that reaction. Choose one of the jokes aboveand describe the unexpected connection responsible for thehumorous response. Try writing a joke and judge your success byyour classmates’ reactions to it.

• A popular feature of the New Yorker magazine is the CartoonCaption Contest. Each week a new cartoon is presented and readerssend in their suggestions for the best caption. The on-line version ofthe contest is available at:

www.newyorker.com/captioncontest

As a class, view the weekly cartoon and create a humorous captionfor the image. Share the captions with your classmates and vote forthe best entry.

• Prince has used preexisting jokes in several ways—from simpleprinted text to elaborate fragments of words and images culled fromvarious sources. Create your own joke drawing or painting, derivedfrom one or several sources. When done, discuss your choices.

• Prince has said that the cartoons of Whitney Darrow Jr.(1909–1999) were an inspiration for his joke paintings. Darrow was awell-known cartoonist and illustrator who produced more than 1,500cartoons for the New Yorker magazine between 1933 and 1982. Morethan 100 of his drawings can be viewed at:

www.cartoonbank.com

What is your response to Darrow’s work? Discuss why Prince mighthave found these cartoons inspiring.

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Show: Tell Me Everything, 1987Silkscreen and acrylic on canvas56 x 48 inches (142.2 x 121.9 cm)Skarstedt Collection, New York

< GANGS AND PUBLICITIES >

Richard Prince has always gravitated towardrepetition, groupings, and categories, andconsistently produces his work in series. Thissensibility has led him to cluster imagesthat display certain similarities, in concept,composition, gesture, and/or subject—creatinghis own, very personal, collections. In 1984 heintroduced into his work a new compositionalformat that demonstrated his interest inclassifying the world as he sees it. Derivedfrom a photo-lab technique of “ganging,” orgrouping, nine to twelve 35mm slides into asingle internegative, which can be greatlyenlarged when printed, Prince’s Gangs areveritable archives of related images.

Formally, each Gang is a grid of individualphotographs, the spaces between which aredefined by the congruence of their slidemounts—clean white frames that physicallyand conceptually connect the content.This predetermined format proved to be an

important step for Prince. It propelled him toexpand his subject matter beyond the slick,luxury-good-laden lifestyle pedaled byadvertising industry to a much wider array oftopics culled from mass culture.

While pursuing his passion for the published—which he has collected from used-book storesand flea markets as well as eBay and garbagedumpsters—Prince also encountered the worldof celebrity memorabilia. He collects andarranges autographed 8 x 10 glossy publicitystills and frames them according to genre andtype. Some are inscribed with authenticsignatures, while others are clearly written in hisown hand. As today’s stars are no longer justmovie actors, but also fashion models,socialites, musicians, and athletes, the range ofsubjects is ever expanding and reminds us howvulnerable we are to the cult of celebrity in allof its shallowness.

Criminals and Celebrities, 1986 (detail). Ektacolor photograph,edition of 2, 86 x 48 inches (218.4 x 121.9 cm)

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“ Criminals and celebrities were perfectfor a ‘gang’ photo. It was so perfect.You could even turn the photographsupside down and sideways. It wasdefinitely a mix. Making that ‘gang’was like deejaying. . . . Spinning therecords. Dancing the picture.”

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Look carefully at Criminals andCelebrities. Describe what you see.

Which images do you think arecelebrities? Which do you think arecriminals? What visual clues lead youto your conclusions?

Prince rotates the images so thatnone of them have traditionalorientations. Why might he havechosen to do this? Do you think itadds or detracts from the impact ofthe work? Explain.

The artist said, “Criminals andcelebrities were perfect for a ‘gang’photo. It was so perfect.” Whatqualities do you think he wasreferring to? What about thesesubjects might have appealed toPrince and led him to call them“perfect”?

Prince likens his “gangs” to thepractice of music sampling wheresegments are taken from originalsound recordings and inserted in newrecordings. Explain how he might beusing this reference.

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS• Prince’s Criminals and Celebrities was created in 1986. Create anupdated version of this work using images found on the Internet or inmagazines. What subjects do you think should be included and why?Once completed, share your work with your classmates and discussyour image choices and juxtapositions.

• Flip through magazines looking for photographs to create your own“gang,” a group of nine images that have something in common.Use a digital camera to photograph the images you have chosen.(Remember to turn off the flash.) An easy way to simulate Prince’sapproach is to import your photos into a PowerPoint presentation andprint them out as “handouts” choosing the “9 per page” option.

• In the 1980s, when Prince was creating his first Gangs, he searchedthrough magazines looking for images that had formal or thematicsimilarities. Today the Internet provides search engines that willinstantly bring images related by theme to your fingertips. Using asearch engine such as Google, choose a theme—for instance,“hands”—and do an image search from which you can create yourown “gang.” When finished, discuss your choices. How does creatinga gang of photos differ from presenting a single image?

• Prince’s Publicities are frequently grouped according to formalrelationships—for example, people with teased, blonde hair (DarrylHannah, Debbie Harry, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Kiefer Sutherland, andKim Wilde) or men with eye patches (Martin Kippenberger and KurtRussell). Choose your own unifying criteria to create a “publicity.”Share your work with your classmates and discuss whether it was easyor difficult for them to determine the common characteristic.

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Show: Criminals and Celebrities, 1986Ektacolor photograph, edition of 286 x 48 inches (218.4 x 121.9 cm)

“Great size. Great subtext. Great reality. Great thing thatactually got painted out there, out there in real life. I meanI didn’t have to make this [expletive deleted] up. It wasthere. Teenagers knew it. It got ‘teen-aged.’ Primed.Flaked. Stripped. Bondo-ed. Lacquered. Nine coats.Sprayed. Numbered. Advertised on. Raced. [expletivedeleted] Steve McQueened.”

< HOODS >

Another of Richard Prince’s series, the Hoodsculptures, focuses on America’s love affair withthe automobile, particularly with the musclecars of the 1960s. It conjures dreams fueled bya desire for escape, speed, and the lure of theopen road—a passion that the artist shares.

Prince began painting on actual muscle-carhoods, treating them as three-dimensional“canvases.” The Hoods can be wall-mountedpainted reliefs or freestanding sculptures whoseentire front ends are encased boxlike as floorpedestals. Advertised in the back of hot-rodmagazines, the hoods are available by mailorder. All the classic models, which wereoriginally made of steel, are offered as partof fiberglass “reproduction” lines, which caterto a nostalgia for 1960s design—Barracudas,Challengers, Road Runners, Chargers, etc.

For Prince, ready-made car hoods fit perfectlyinto his appropriative strategies. Initially he

farmed out the finishing work—bonding,sanding, and spray painting—to body shops,which would apply standard, slick auto finishesin a variety of off-the-shelf colors. Overtime, however, he personalized the processand introduced his own hand into thetransformation of catalogue-ready car partsinto art, mastering the use of Bondo as anaesthetic element. With the finish no longercommercially applied, the surfaces appearlayered and atmospheric like majesticmonochrome paintings.

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Point Courage, 1989. Fiberglass, wood, oil, and enamel,60 1⁄2 x 56 1⁄4 x 4 inches (153.7 x 142.9 x 10.2 cm).

Collection of Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy, Connecticut

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Although some viewers wouldinstantly recognize this form as beinga car hood, many others would not.What do you think Prince foundinteresting about car hoods? Describehow knowing that this is work ispainted on the hood of a car altersyour reaction to it.

Prince chose the title Point Courage.Can you find a way to relate this workto its title? If you were to rename it,what title would you choose? Why?

In what ways are Prince’s Hoodsdifferent from the other series ofworks that he has created (i.e., theCowboys or Jokes)? Are there waysin which these series are related toeach other?

Would you categorize this work as apainting, a sculpture, or somethingelse? Invent a word to describe thisnew category of art, which has bothsculptural and painterly components.

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS• Prince has taken a commercially available, manufactured object andtransformed it into a work of art. Search around for a discardedmanufactured object that you would like to transform into an artwork.What object did you choose? Why? Describe the process of itstransformation. Where would be the best place to display the workyou have created? Why? How does the placement of the work affectits impact?

• Prince was born in 1949 and came of age in the 1960s, during the eraof the Beach Boys, whose hit singles—including “409,” an ode to aChevy 409, and “Shut Down,” a celebration of drag racing—helpedgive the muscle car the cult status it still has today. Research thishistorical period by listening to its music. Do you think America’sromance with the automobile has continued, increased, or waned?Explain your response.

• What aspects of current popular culture do you think you willultimately remember as formative influences? Explain your choices.

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Show: Point Courage, 1989Fiberglass, wood, oil, and enamel60 1⁄2 x 56 1⁄4 x 4 inches (153.7 x 142.9 x 10.2 cm)Collection of Melva Bucksbaum and RaymondLearsy, Connecticut

“Again, I was just using what was around me. I noticedcertain repetitive elements in the neighborhood up here—basketball hoops, tire planters, tree-houses. But I'm notsure if I would refer to myself as a photographer. I'mcertainly not a real one. I make a lot of mistakes. I useindoor film outdoors. I don't spend time in the darkroom.I'm still playing with the camera.”

< UPSTATE PHOTOGRAPHS >

In 1996 Richard Prince moved to upstateNew York and began a new series of creativeinvestigations. After almost two decades ofmaking work derived from images and phrasesthat already exist in popular culture, he took hiscamera outside and photographed the banaldetails of his everyday environment. Althoughthis could be viewed as a radical departure, toPrince there is no essential difference betweenmaking photos of other photos and makingphotos of the world at large. He is alwayspaying attention to what is around him withintense scrutiny.

On one level the Upstate photos chroniclea landscape of economic decline in anunremarkable semirural area. Pictures of

above-ground swimming pools and melancholyimages of abandoned-looking basketball hoopsperched on the edge of overgrown fieldssuggest a region cut off from the culturalmainstream. However, Prince finds quietmoments of beauty in these overlooked andundervalued features of the landscape.

Untitled (upstate), 1995–99. Ektacolor photograph,edition of 2, 60 x 40 inches (152.4 x 101.6 cm)

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Describe this work as fully as you can.For some this may be a familiarimage. For others it may be one theyhave not encountered. Have youvisited a place like this? When? Whatare your associations with it? Explain.

As you look at this photograph, makea list of adjectives that you would useto describe the locale. Look at the listof words you have compiled. Can youthink of a place in your communitythat has a similar “feel”? Describe thislocation.

Prince has photographed this subjectto make it both everyday and unusual.Describe both aspects of this work.How can one photo be both ordinaryand mysterious at the same time?

It is difficult to know whether Prince isattracted to, interested in, or critical ofhis subjects. Prince has stated, “Mywork is not judgmental; it’s like awindow I see through. Not censuringanything is something artists continueto do—at least some do, at least I do.”What do you think? What does itmean for an artist to be “a window”?

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS• Many artists have found inspiration in their immediate environment.Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) repeatedly painted scenes of his homein Pointoise, a small town near Paris. Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986)fell in love with the landscape near Abiquiu, New Mexico, whosevaricolored cliffs inspired some of her most famous landscapes, andCharles Burchfield (1893–1967) used the industrial vistas aroundBuffalo, New York, as an ongoing theme. Research the work of theseartists and then bring a camera with you on a walk around yourcommunity. Take pictures of things that you find of interest. Whenyou return home look over your photos. What themes, ideas, orsubjects are repeated in your series?

• According to Prince, “After twenty-five years, I was tired of theNew York City lifestyle. I found it boring and repetitive—you know,going to another dinner. Living in New York feels like you're alwaysinside—inside buildings, inside subways. I needed a new experience, soI went to the opposite extreme. We have a small farmhouse in theCatskills at the end of a dead-end dirt road. Here I'm outside. There'sno traffic. I don't have to walk down a set of stairs to get onto asidewalk full of people. I walk out the door and step onto the grass.At first I found it all very exotic. I started taking my own photographs.I drive around in my truck and take my camera with me.”

• Many people have strong preferences for living in cities or in thecountry. Express yours. Do your classmates agree or disagree aboutthe pro and cons of city and country life?

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Show: Untitled (upstate), 1995–99Ektacolor photograph, edition of 260 x 40 inches (152.4 x 101.6 cm)

This educator’s guide for Richard Prince: Spiritual America is adapted from “Nowhere Man,” Nancy Spector’s essay in theexhibition catalogue Richard Prince (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2007). Spector is Chief Curator at the Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum.

All works by Richard Prince © 2007 Richard Prince. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

Spector, Nancy. Richard Prince. New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2007.Brooks, Rosetta, Jeff Rian, and Luc Sante. Richard Prince. London: Phaidon Press, 2003.Phillips, Lisa. Richard Prince. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1992.

WEB SITES

www.guggenheim.org/artscurriculumThe educator’s guide is available with downloadable images on the Guggenheim’s Web site.www.nymag.com/nymetro/arts/art/11815Interview with the artist.www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/richard_prince.shtmlInterview with the artist.

RESOURCES

MEDIA LITERACY

www.medialit.orgCenter for Media Literacy provides materials for educators related to developing media literacy skills.www.ithaca.edu/looksharpProject Look Sharp provides materials, training, and support to help teachers prepare students for life in today's mediasaturated world. Project Look Sharp promotes the effective integration of media literacy and critical thinking into classroomcurricula. Project Look Sharp is an initiative of Ithaca College, working in collaboration with local school districts, New YorkState BOCES, the Alliance for Media Literate America, and other national media literacy organizations.www.costkids.org/targetingkids/magazineads.htmAn antismoking Web site by kids with special attention to advertisements that encourage kids to smoke.www.about-face.orgWeb site contains “gallery of winners” and “gallery of offenders,” demonstrating examples of both positive and negativeadvertising focusing on tobacco as well as other products.www.childrensmediaproject.orgChildren's Media Project is an arts and education organization focusing on media and technology. It has developed atextbook Smoke Screens: From Tobacco Outrage to Media Activism, designed to educate middle school students about thedangers of smoking.

CARTOONS AND JOKES

Darrow, Whitney, Jr. Give Up? New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.www.cartoonbank.comMore than 100 cartoons by Whitney Darrow Jr. can be viewed at this Web site.www.newyorker.com/captioncontestWeb site for the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest presents cartoons in need of captions. You can submit a caption orvote for your favorite.

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APPROPRIATION The concept of taking possession of existing material,imagery or techniques from everyday life, popular culture, or pasttraditions, often without permission, and reusing it in a context thatdiffers from its original one. Frequently appropriation techniques are usedin order to reveal meaning not previously seen in the original. RichardPrince was part of a generation of artists associated with postmodernismwho emerged in the late 1970s and 80s and used this strategy toundermine the privileged position of the author and modernism’sobsession with the “original.”

CONCEPTUAL ART is based on the notion that the essence of art is anidea, or concept, and may exist distinct from and even in the absence ofan object as its representation. Conceptual art emerged in the 1960swhen both art institutions and the preciousness of the unique aestheticobject were being challenged by artists and critics.

CONTEXT The environment in which something exists. For example:When you look at a painting in the nave of a church, with stained glasswindows and prayer candles and parishioners kneeling in the pews, it isquite unlike viewing that painting in a museum, where it is surrounded byinformative wall texts, strolling visitors, a café, and a gift shop. Go a stepfurther and imagine the same painting on a postcard. When you see thispainting reproduced on a T-shirt or mouse pad, it has traveled far fromits original context.

DECONTEXTUALIZATION To remove something from the arena orenvironment in which it usually exists.

POPULAR CULTURE The common set of tastes and customs shared bylarge segments within a population; also called “pop culture.”

POSTMODERNISM Postmodernist theory—articulated in architecture,literature, and other fields—questioned and dismantled the grandnarrative of Western culture and had a profound impact on the visualarts by the end of the 1970s. Postmodernism includes appropriation andother aesthetic approaches that emerged at that time as critiques ofmodernism’s principles of innovation, artistic authenticity, and individualexpression.

REPHOTOGRAPHY Prince’s method of photographing existing photographsto create his own original artwork.

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