
“I was in the tear-sheets department. At the end of the day, all I was left with was the advertising images, and it became my subject. Pens, watches, models—it wasn’t your typical subject matter for art.”
This triptych of Ektacolor photographs by Richard Prince presents rephotographed advertising imagery—pens, watches, and models—stripped of their original commercial context and reframed as fine art. Working from his experience in the tear-sheets department of a magazine, Prince appropriated the seductive visual language of consumer culture, challenging traditional notions of authorship and originality. The work stands as a foundational example of Pictures Generation appropriation art, interrogating the boundary between advertising and artistic subject matter.
- Medium
- Ektacolor photograph, triptych
- Spotted At
- Auction House · Phillips
🔨 Auction Lot
Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale
March 7, 2013
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