After posts on Andreas Gursky and Cindy Sherman, the third instalment in this series features Richard Prince, whose Spiritual America is the second most expensive photograph ever sold at auction at $3.9 million.

Profile

Born 6th August 1949
Best known for ‘rephotographs’ style of photography, & Untitled (cowboy) once the most expensive photograph sold at auction.

Work

Cowboys (1980-1992)
Nurse Paintings (2003)
“New Portraits” (2014-2015)

Influences

Abstract expressionist painters such as Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock whose ‘antisocial’ work inspired Prince to pursue a career in art.

At Auction

Spiritual America 1981. Ektacolor print. Sold at Christie’s New York in May 2014: $3,973,000 

Untitled (cowboy) 2000. Ektacolour Print. Sotheby’s New York May 2014: $3,077,000

What you need to know

Both of Prince’s entries in the top twenty most expensive photographs sold at auction are ‘rephotographs’, meaning that his images are photographs of pre-existing photographs. Spiritual America is a photograph taken of a photograph of a ten-year-old Brooke Shields taken by Garry Gross, and Untitled (Cowboy) is a photograph of a Sam Abell photograph.

Other

Prince’s work has been the subject of various copyright infringement suits including one filed by photographer Patrick Carious who had 35 of his photographs appropriated by Prince in an exhibition at the Gagosian gallery, and photographer Donald Graham who had his photograph reproduced without permission in the New Portraits exhibition. Various Instagram users have also had their photos appropriated by Prince without permission and sold for up to $100,000.