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Untitled (Fashion Helmet)

A work made of chromogenic print.
© Richard Prince. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

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  • A work made of chromogenic print.

Date:

1982

Artist:

Richard Prince
American, born 1949

About this artwork

Around the time he made this piece, Richard Prince was watching lots of movies that he rented from a World of Video store. Asked by a store employee what he did for a living, Prince answered that he was a thief—a statement whose possible truth belied its apparent irony. From 1977 until 1984, Prince presented as his own work rephotographed advertisements from magazines. Liberated from their initial context, the images, or details of images, took on a fantastic quality, one that kept in play the aura of desire, money, and power fuelling all consumer culture while adding dimensions of instability and true freedom that consumerism is designed to repress. In this photograph fashion sheaths its wearer like a condom, making a man-part out of a woman while cloaking manliness in a feminine accoutrement. Copyright infringement, an act of thievery in legal terms, is the most obvious but not the greatest transgression accomplished by Prince’s appropriation of publicly circulating photographs, an interest he retains to this day.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Richard Prince

Title

Untitled (Fashion Helmet)

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1982

Medium

Chromogenic print

Dimensions

Image: 59.6 × 40.9 cm (23 1/2 × 16 1/8 in.); Paper: 60.9 × 50.8 cm (24 × 20 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Boardroom, Inc.

Reference Number

1992.708

Copyright

© Richard Prince. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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