Richard Prince’s early photographs go on show at London’s Gagosian

Richard Prince’s subversion of mainstream motifs explored hidden facets in an all-American identity. Turning his lens to an eclectic range of subjects, from cowboys as a homogeneous idealisation of the Wild West, to his photographs of luxury watches and pens, Prince was above all interested in the sociological slant photography imbued on a subject. 

‘Richard Prince: Early Photography, 1977–87’

Now, the beginnings of Prince’s career are explored in an exhibition at the Gagosian London’s Grosvenor Hill and Davies Street galleries, marking the beginning of Frieze London 2023, as the art fair celebrates 20 years. Taking the years 1977 – 1987 as a focus, more than 80 photographs unite work from Prince’s productive decade.

The Entertainers series (1982-3) is explored in the Davies Street Gallery; recasting the glamour of fame, Prince strips the subjects back to a grid-like uniformity. In Grosvenor Hill, photographs from different series are united, from his self-portraits to a dissecting of accepted masculinity motifs.  

As a symbol of idealised heroism, cowboys fascinated Prince. In Untitled (Cowboy) (1980–84), the cowboy is almost interchangeable with the landscape. The photographer continues to play with perceptions in his black and white Untitled (Self-Portrait) (1980); photographed in a suit, tie, eye make-up and lipstick, he expresses an alienation also seen in Untitled (Couple) (1977) and Untitled (Man Looking to the Left) (1978), where rephotographed images of models dressed in suits became a symbol of representation themselves. Also recontextualised are his photographed advertisements for luxury goods, once again setting Prince apart, this time from the photographers who took the original images.

Images take a sideways look at stock photography, something the subjects of Criminals and Celebrities (1986) try to escape, while Untitled (Fainted) (1980) considers the stills of unconscious women in a questioning of the realist narrative. ‘When you put an already existing image in front of a camera,’ Prince has said, ‘you know what you’re going to get. You’ve taken out the decisive moment.’ In his 1983 essay on cowboys he added: ‘Some people would like to try to change places, just for a day, with maybe someone they admired or even envied, to see what it would be like, to see if it would be what they’d always heard it would be.’

‘Richard Prince: Early Photography’, 5 October - 22 December 2023, Gagosian, 20 Grosvenor Hill and 17–19 Davies Street, London 

gagosian.com