This book is published in conjunction with the exhibition Richard Prince, The Fug held at Almine Rech Gallery Brussels, from September 10th to November 5th, 2011.
'Who is the real Richard Prince? The question isn’t obvious when asked of anyone: after all, even Rimbaud had a large dose of the not-Rimbaud in him, but it is especially ambiguous when asked of a trickster and artistic shapeshifter of Prince’s caliber. Prince has manipulated the rules of art and truth with such skill throughout his career that today we suspect him of lying even when he’s telling the truth. It’s a calculated effect, one that is the payoff of a practice spent in the fabrication of artworks that trade in rumor, gossip, innuendo, fabrication, simulation and dissembling.
Prince has created traditional art objects in the form of photographs, paintings and sulptures, but he’s also surrounded these objects with an element of performative élan, placing them in out-of-the-way installations, burying them in rumored shows, and enveloping them in a web of calculated gossip. The effect is a savvy type of art-making that performs a double-take: it simultaneously gives the art world what it wannts–discrete, saleable works of art–but surrounds the art with a style of practice that withholds even more, for instance, originality–and the cherished intimacy of the artist’s authentic hand.'
– John McWhinnie, Thirteen different ways of looking at Richard Prince
162 pages
23 x 30.5 cm, 9 x 12 inches
63 illustrations
1 poster insert
Hardcover
English / French
Edition of 1000
Almine Rech Gallery Editions