Untitled (portrait) , 2014
65.8 x 48.8 in (h x w)
150000
ink jet on canvas
for sale

Richard Prince’s series New Portraits sees the artist’s practice of appropriation invade the realm of social media. Instagram in particular is perceived by the artist as an infinite database of visual material to plunder. Prince’s involvement with Instagram engages with the appropriating aesthetic that has characterized his contested practice since the mid-seventies.
Unveiling the ease with which people give away their privacy for heightened visibility and their narcissistic need for recognition, Prince insinuates himself in various Instagram profiles. He comments on photographs, screen-grabs the images, then prints them. In this process, the invisible public of Instagram users is transformed into the more tangible presence of a contemporary art audience. As a protege of the Pictures Generation group that made art from re-appropriated mass-media photographs in the 1970s Prince borrows Instagram images to address the way people present themselves to the world, making this self-exhibiting process explicit in all its ambiguous connotations. A manifestation of the frailty of copyright and privacy in a world overwhelmed by images whose source is hardly re-traceable, Prince’s New Portraits are a powerful account of the blurring of the boundaries between physical and virtual reality.

Exhibited by:

Tethys Art

More from Tethys Art

DJ , 2009
18 x 13 in (h x w)
Gouache, colored pencil on paper
Tethys Art
USD
175000.00
Rain Check , 2020
38.3 x 22.5 x 2.3 in (h x w x d)
Digital Art
Tethys Art
USD
Happy as a Clam , 2020
22.5 x 38.3 x 2.3 in (h x w x d)
NFT
Tethys Art
USD
5000.00
Fuck Me #3 , 2016
58 x 78 in (h x w)
Oil, Acrylic, and inkjet print on canvas
Tethys Art
USD
50000.00
Withdraw #4 , 2016
58 x 60 in (h x w)
Oil, Acrylic, and inkjet print on canvas
Tethys Art
USD
45000.00