Richard Prince

Richard Prince, a maker of photographs, drawings, paintings and sculptures, as well as a writer, Richard Prince's habit of re-photographing existing photographs (initiated in the late 1970's) helped spawn the appropriation craze of the 80's. The artist himself is best known for his deadpan recycling of magazine and newspaper images that range through the highs and lows of popular culture. References to sex, drugs, rock-and- roll, alcoholism and the movies frequently give his efforts a dark and familiar undercurrent. But his relentless replication of found images also has its esoteric side and continually questions definitions of art, originality and artistic technique.