(Panama Canal Zone 1949 – lives and works in New York)

RPED026 - Untitled (Cowboy), 1984. From the Cowboys series.

Chromogenic colour print on Kodak Professional Paper. Vintage. Printed through Printed Matter.

Image dimension 59 x 40.5 cm; sheet dimension 60.8 x 50.7 cm.

Verso signed and numbered 11/26.

Literature:
- Corinne Diserens, et al. Spiritual America - Richard Prince. Valencia, 1989 (ill. p. 43, here somewhat trimmed).
- Richard Prince. Adult Comedy Action Drama. Göttingen, 1995 (ill. p. 231).
- Lisa Phillips (ed.). Richard Prince. Exhibition catalogue Whitney Museum of American Art, 1.5.-12.7.1992, New York et al., 1992.

Provenance:
- Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Los Angeles in 2012.
- Belgian private collection.

"The pictures I went after, 'stole', were too good to be true. They were about wishful thinking, public pictures that happen to appear in the advertising sections of mass market magazines, pictures not associated with an author.... It was their look I was interested in. I wanted to re-present the closest thing to the real thing." (Richard Prince quoted in Rosetta Brooks, "Spiritual America: No Holds Barred", in: Phillips, 1992, p. 85-102, here p. 85).


"Every Monday, People and Time magazines would come out. When I got to work I’d pour thru them looking for a new Marlboro Ad. This would make my dead-end job seem less dead. Looking thru a brand new magazine has always excited me. I’m not sure why. Being next to someone else’s world is the best way I can describe it. It was especially exciting back then because I was 'tearing' the 'cowboys' and the expectations of finding a good one, one that I could use… added to the excitement. I was re-photographing the ads with color slide film and sending the slides off to a to a lab in Kansas, waiting a couple of days to get a roll of 36 'transparencies' back in the mail. After the wait, I’d spread them out on my light box and sit and shuffle them around and try to pick out the “good one.” (Opening up a new box of 'developed' slides was the best part of what was next)." (Richard Prince quote from the website of the artist, http://www.richardprince.com/birdtalk/, 25.5.2020).


Nearly flawless condition.