Instagram users, adjust your privacy setting and remember the name Richard Prince.
Should he request to follow you, he could one day “appropriate” your pictures and make thousands of dollars off you.
Prince featured 38 screenshots from his Instagram feed in a show in New York City last fall and at the Frieze Art Fair earlier this month, and some of the people featured are just now finding out about their pictures appearing in giant form on gallery walls.
Photo: doedeere/Instagram
The inkjet “paintings” have sold from $40,000 to $90,000, according to media outlets that cover the art world and were used without permission. His stamp on the images exists in a comment he left the person. Many of the pictures are of young women posing provocatively.
“No, I did not give my permission and yes, the controversial artist Richard Prince put it up anyway,” tweeted doedeere, whose self-portrait with blue hair and a matching doll appeared at the art fair. “It already sold ($90K I’ve been told) during the VIP preview. No, I’m not going go after him.”
Prince is notorious for using the work of other artists and making changes to call it his own. He recently settled a long legal battle over copyright infringement with a photographer and he has been quoted saying the concept of copyright “has never interested” him.
The first line on Prince’s Wikipedia page reads, “Richard Prince (born 1949) is a professional thief.”
Reviews on what he does, especially with the Instagram work, are mixed. One critic wrote a story about the show last fall at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City with the headline “Richard Prince sucks.”
“Here’s what I’ve got by way of reflection,” wrote Paddy Johnson for artnet.com “Prince likes images of breasts. We can trace appropriation precedents back to Warhol, and Prince as an early adopter, but who cares? Copy-paste culture is so ubiquitous now that appropriation remains relevant only to those who have piles of money invested in appropriation artists. The work on canvas looks about as good as you’d expect for a tiny, 72 DPI image, which is to say they are fuzzy and better viewed on a phone. There’s no apparent rationale for the sequencing of the installation.
“Short story short: There’s no reason for the reproductions to exist, except to make Prince a little cash—the prints are apparently going for up to $100,000 a pop. This makes the show exceptionally vapid. Don’t go see it. Don’t ever buy the work.”
In a more positive review, Loring Knoblauch wrote in Collector Daily: “The new pictures dive deeper into personal exhibitionism and narcissism, where both male and female personas are being crafted with meticulous care and the question of what is normal becomes more obscure. Prince’s women are confidently quirky and sexual, while his men are struggling to find the right level of mysterious masculine reserve; seen together, the images make us consider just how many layers of personal counterfeit have now become commonplace.”
Source: PetaPixel
David Pierini is a former newspaper writer and long-time photographer. Considered a luddite by most of his friends, they did not believe him when he broke the news that he would be writing for a technology website. He is fascinated by human nature and would love to cultivate stories about the people driving the tech bus. Reach out to him at [email protected].
8 responses to “Artist Richard Prince cashes in on others’ Instagram photos”
What a cock.
What an asshole.
The shitty people who BUY this work are even worse than the plagiarizer himself, imho. If you create a demand for stolen works, works will be stolen for you to procure, no?
What a punk.
Just a few words on this: thief, thief, thief, thief…
Isn’t it mind-twisting how blindly elitist the art world has
become? Steal young artists’ work; stamp it with a reputable artist name and
gallery; and sell it for millions as THE new status symbol. What once was a
society of expression, intellect and authenticity has become one that is now
limited to greediness for prestige, cocktail parties and money. Surely, new
media such as Instagram should be a gateway to democratize the consumption and
ownership of art. Instead, it is being abused to affect the opposite.
My name is Ferdinand Prinz, and Richard and me do not only
share the same surname. I am also selling Instagram photography – but with a
twist. At Post Collective (.com), we support aspiring Instagramers over 20k
followers, and give them a platform to showcase, produce and distribute their
work. In turn, we provide fans of all ages with affordable, but gallery-quality
photography prints, often their first pieces of art. We believe it is all about
making art accessible. So if you’re also fed up with Richard Prince, Larry
Gagosian and co, please come and support the real artists on Instagram /
@postcollective.
Isn’t it mind-twisting how blindly elitist the art world has
become? Steal young artists’ work; stamp it with a reputable artist name and
gallery; and sell it for millions as THE new status symbol. What once was a
society of expression, intellect and authenticity has become one that is now
limited to greediness for prestige, cocktail parties and money. Surely, new
media such as Instagram should be a gateway to democratize the consumption and
ownership of art. Instead, it is being abused to affect the opposite.
My name is Ferdinand Prinz, and Richard and me do not only
share the same surname. I am also selling Instagram photography – but with a
twist. At Post Collective (.com), we support aspiring Instagramers over 20k
followers, and give them a platform to showcase, produce and distribute their
work. In turn, we provide fans of all ages with affordable, but gallery-quality
photography prints, often their first pieces of art. We believe it is all about
making art accessible. So if you’re also fed up with Richard Prince, Larry
Gagosian and co, please come and support the real artists on Instagram.
somebody should pay him a visit…