Melissa Faithful for Art-Sheep
Is the Internet a world where everything can belong to everyone and vice versa?
Richard Prince, a legendary contemporary artist, is famous for his photographic reproductions and his neo-conceptual works. Last year, his “New Portraits,” show featured reproductions of Instagram images. Prince used several screenshots of Instagram posts, depicting women in sexually charged poses, among others.
One of “his” works sold for $90,000 and it is a screenshot of an Instagram user identified as Doe Deere, who was informed about her photo being sold by Prince. “Figured I might as well post this since everyone is texting me. Yes, my portrait is currently displayed at the Frieze Gallery in NYC. Yes, it’s just a screenshot (not a painting) of my original post. No, I did not give my permission and yes, the controversial artist Richard Prince put it up anyway. It’s already sold ($90K I’ve been told) during the VIP preview. No, I’m not gonna go after him. And nope, I have no idea who ended up with it!” she writes on her Instagram.
The artist features these Intagram shots, after having removed the captions of some of them, but without altering the original photos. Prince’s works have caused an outraged coming from art critics, visitors and of course people featured in his images, something that doesn’t seem to bother the artist, who often re-posts his several and various critics.
