Taking the perfect selfie might be an art form, but is it truly art? For a group of musicians, models, artists, writers, and fake celebrity fan accounts, the answer seems to be yes. Art’s appropriator extraordinaire Richard Prince’s latest show, New Portraits, features screencaps of these people’s Instagram photos blown up on stretch canvas and displayed on the walls of Gagosian Gallery. New Portraits has received a polarized reaction from the public, with some praising Prince for bringing to light how little ownership we have on our own social media content, while others claim the pieces are not art at all and criticize Prince on his questionable choice of words in the comments on women’s pictures. One of the main criticisms is Prince's selective cropping of the comments section in each image, which always gives his own comment the last word. Paddy Johnson's review for artnet encapsulates this view well: "[H]e writes under young singer-songwriter Sky Ferreira's portrait of herself in the passenger seat of a red sports car: 'Enjoyed the ride today. Let's do it again. Richard.' If she had a snide response to the leering comment, we never learn what it was."
With everyone giving their opinions on the matter, what better group of people to talk about it with than the subjects of the show themselves? We reached out to a number of them, and most of their comments were positive—perhaps unsurprising considering many are fellow artists who deal with the topic of appropriation in their own work. Do they agree conceptually with Prince or are they just unwilling to ruffle feathers or turn down such fantastic publicity? One thing is for certain: For these subjects, the experience generated strong feelings. Just as, we assume, Richard Prince intended.
Cara Stricker/@carastricker/Photographer
Cara recently wrote an open letter to Prince to explore her feeling on the subject, and sent us a copy of it. Cara sees Prince’s project as an act of awareness-raising about the policies we comply with online, which contain parameters we never really pay attention to. She states to Prince, “Every time we use Instagram or Facebook we sign a waiver giving permission to sell our images, and you have both exploited and undermined this. I support this commentary: no one owns an idea, and your works state this in bold." Cara also sees the project as a statement on current generational ideas. “Our generation accepts appropriation and borrowing from all pasts because we accept a future of unity. ‘The Yes Generation’… How else could we move forward except through this acceptance and the freedom it gives us?”
Miller Rodriguez/@prettypukefool/Photographer
Mr. Rodriguez, aka Pretty Puke, was very flattered to have his work featured in Prince’s show: "I really feel that he is a great photographer that I owe a lot too. Artists like Prince, Nan Goldin, Larry Clark, and Dash Snow created work that has influenced me greatly and turned me into the photographer I am today." He ends his statement in true Pretty Puke fashion: “Shout out to Prince: If you're ever in LA you could buy me a coffee with that $$ you made on my work ;)”
Ras Mugadu/@rasfotos/Street Photographer
Ras “could not be happier being a part of the project.” He explained that he has been a fan of Richard Prince for years and thinks that the project is
With everyone giving their opinions on the matter, what better group of people to talk about it with than the subjects of the show themselves? We reached out to a number of them, and most of their comments were positive—perhaps unsurprising considering many are fellow artists who deal with the topic of appropriation in their own work. Do they agree conceptually with Prince or are they just unwilling to ruffle feathers or turn down such fantastic publicity? One thing is for certain: For these subjects, the experience generated strong feelings. Just as, we assume, Richard Prince intended.
Cara Stricker/@carastricker/Photographer
Cara recently wrote an open letter to Prince to explore her feeling on the subject, and sent us a copy of it. Cara sees Prince’s project as an act of awareness-raising about the policies we comply with online, which contain parameters we never really pay attention to. She states to Prince, “Every time we use Instagram or Facebook we sign a waiver giving permission to sell our images, and you have both exploited and undermined this. I support this commentary: no one owns an idea, and your works state this in bold." Cara also sees the project as a statement on current generational ideas. “Our generation accepts appropriation and borrowing from all pasts because we accept a future of unity. ‘The Yes Generation’… How else could we move forward except through this acceptance and the freedom it gives us?”
Miller Rodriguez/@prettypukefool/Photographer
Mr. Rodriguez, aka Pretty Puke, was very flattered to have his work featured in Prince’s show: "I really feel that he is a great photographer that I owe a lot too. Artists like Prince, Nan Goldin, Larry Clark, and Dash Snow created work that has influenced me greatly and turned me into the photographer I am today." He ends his statement in true Pretty Puke fashion: “Shout out to Prince: If you're ever in LA you could buy me a coffee with that $$ you made on my work ;)”
Ras Mugadu/@rasfotos/Street Photographer
Ras “could not be happier being a part of the project.” He explained that he has been a fan of Richard Prince for years and thinks that the project is