Richard Prince is an American painter, photographer and book publisher. Since the 70’s he has produced a diverse body of works that have proven significant in shaping the broader conversation about contemporary art-making, specifically in regards to authorship, appropriation and fair use.

As one of the most visible artists within the so-called ‘Pictures Generation,’ Prince’s practice has considered what it means to make artwork in the context of a newly predominant ‘media culture.’ Saturated by image and film, and popular culture more broadly, artists like Sherrie Levine, Cindy Sherman, Jack Goldstein, and Barbara Kruger took to the already-mediated world as their source of inspiration. Prince as much as anyone shared a fascination for the new iconicism built on empty and reproducible images, a “social science fiction” which he thought to be a gussied up version of reality more geared towards selling luxury goods than meaningful human experience. “I seem to go after images that I don’t quite believe. And, I try to re-present them even more unbelievably.” To this end, Prince famously created a series of works known as his ‘Cowboy’ photographs, in which he simply re-photographed Marlboro cigarette advertisements as his own. Showing the rugged, pristinely-dressed men in a new light he offers a parody of commodification and cultural appropriation, suggesting that perhaps the distinction between artwork and adverts is no longer a meaningful one.

The significance of his contributions through his ‘Cowboys,’ ‘Nurses’ and ‘Gangs’ series have more recently been complimented by his active (if elusive) publishing imprint Fulton Ryder, where he steadily puts out original and appropriative works under a number of fictitious aliases. In 2012, he published a facsimile of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, identical to the original in every way except Prince has listed his own name in the place of the author’s and changed corresponding biographical details.

These posters shown here include some of Prince’s most iconic images: biker girlfriends, cowboys, nurses, and other borrowed imagery of pop culture.