Were have all the Cowboys gone?

Episode Five: Richard Prince

We love someone who rocks the boat. Artist Richard Prince is so frikking intelligent with his work, and his ‘Girlfriends‘ and ‘Cowboy‘ series get me every time. I’m also a sucker for comments on consumerism and mass culture and ownership (expect future episodes to include Sherman, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Kruger, Levine & the Don of the lot Kessels…) Prince raised (or re addressed) questions of ownership of public images, the location of the author and at what point the artist becomes the artist…

In ‘Girlfriends‘ from 1992, Prince re photographs self portrait ads placed by women in biker magazines and addresses issues of gender and desire. Does the image change once it has been re photographed, selected, edited and manipulated by a man…questions questions…

‘Cowboys‘ also from 1992 is a series of re photographed and cropped Marlboro adverts, with the text removed. Prince began re photographing them after the company hit the headlines and became the target of an antismoking campaign. They were forced to stop using the famous  Marlboro Man. The images, stripped down become an even stronger comment on American culture and idealism. America as the Consumer Nation, and the Cowboy as the American Hero, the leading man, the American Dream…just after advertising went mental in the 1980s, what has this John Wanyne man’s man become? hmm.