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Lot Essay
In 1977 Richard Prince began re-photographing images of models and luxurious items that he found in magazine advertisements. A forerunner of 1980s' "appropriation art", Prince sought to expose the artifice of marketing imagery. "Most of what's passing for information right now is total fiction," remarks Prince. "I try to turn the lie back on itself." Nonetheless, Prince acknowledges his reliance on "stealing" imagery, and in 1983 he tempted the limits of criminality by exhibiting (anonymously) a re-photographed picture of Brooke Shields nude as a child.
As described by Rosetta Brooks: "In the foreground and background are two sculpted figurines. The background figure suggests grace, sensuality, femininity, freedom. In the foreground is a reclining figure. The head is lowered, suggesting dejection, world-weariness, self-enclosure, depression. An image of a child's body in the familiar flesh colors of a pornographic picture appears out of the monochromatic self-enclosed world. It is Brooke Shields. She appears otherworldly, as though she were somehow occupying a celestial realm.The pose she adopts is a combination of coyness and availability, awkwardness and knowingness, exposure and concealment. Like most pedophiliac representations, the child is made to adopt a deliberately inflexible, artificially aesthetic posture." (Brooks in Phillips, p. 88)
The photograph was exhibited in a gilt frame--all alone--in a temporary gallery named "Spiritual America" located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The public uproar was substantial, not only due to the illicit subject matter but also because Prince chose to exhibit the photograph while Shields' mother-manager Terri and the original photographer (Garry Gross) were in court over the picture's ownership rights. Seizing on media-hype, Prince's Spiritual America drew a crowd whose intentions were far more voyeuristic than artistic, revealing the inestimable power of desire in consumer culture.
As described by Rosetta Brooks: "In the foreground and background are two sculpted figurines. The background figure suggests grace, sensuality, femininity, freedom. In the foreground is a reclining figure. The head is lowered, suggesting dejection, world-weariness, self-enclosure, depression. An image of a child's body in the familiar flesh colors of a pornographic picture appears out of the monochromatic self-enclosed world. It is Brooke Shields. She appears otherworldly, as though she were somehow occupying a celestial realm.The pose she adopts is a combination of coyness and availability, awkwardness and knowingness, exposure and concealment. Like most pedophiliac representations, the child is made to adopt a deliberately inflexible, artificially aesthetic posture." (Brooks in Phillips, p. 88)
The photograph was exhibited in a gilt frame--all alone--in a temporary gallery named "Spiritual America" located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The public uproar was substantial, not only due to the illicit subject matter but also because Prince chose to exhibit the photograph while Shields' mother-manager Terri and the original photographer (Garry Gross) were in court over the picture's ownership rights. Seizing on media-hype, Prince's Spiritual America drew a crowd whose intentions were far more voyeuristic than artistic, revealing the inestimable power of desire in consumer culture.