Spiritual America: just about every photograph in that show was labeled “Exhibition Copy” or something like that. There wasn't a single “original” Richard Prince photograph in that museum—they were all copies that were probably destroyed after the exhibition. (Prince has always produced his photographic work in editions of two.) So here was a major retrospective in a major world museum that, for a large part of the show, displayed facsimiles of the artist’s work. I cannot recall a single review that mentioned this. Is the joke on us now?
Here’s a related story from two years ago, perhaps posted two years too late:

Such a high price for a photograph may be attributed to market whims. Prince’s stock in the art world has risen in recent years, enough to position the artist as number five on the top artists list of ArtReview magazine’s annual Power 100, released in November 2005, where he was previously unranked. Recent high-profile exhibitions at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York, work displayed in international art fairs, paintings appearing on a record cover, and interviews with or conducted by Prince in Artforum magazine have made him and his work on the tips of tongues. And Untitled (Cowboy), a large 50 x 70 inches, benefits from have the second edition in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But the artist’s current market trendiness is not at issue here. In a larger sense, such a feat—the one million dollar mark—should have been cause for celebration for those who have tirelessly championed photography as art, but when considering the photograph in question—a tossed-off snapshot of a magazine page—an uneasiness sinks in.
2 comments:
i saw one.
http://anaba.blogspot.com/2007/10/exhibition-prince.html
I am glad to know that I am not the only one to notice. I would think that at least one reviewer would mention the fact that Prince's exhibition was comprised largely of facsimiles--not to launch into a tirade about the market (BORING!) but rather as a description of a key element of the exhibition.
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