Photos 1970s 1980s
The date in the subtitles below is the date of the print when known.
See also : Photo Photos by women Fashion
Chronology : 1983
See also : Photo Photos by women Fashion
Chronology : 1983
1977 Red Morning in Black and White
2017 SOLD for £ 850K including premium
The almost single theme of the dual team Gilbert and George is the condition of life in London, not always easy in the East End where they live since 1968 in a house of the 18th century.
They are anti-conformists in all their actions. When they declare themselves royalists, it is because they perceive in the communism the threat of a social leveling. Their mural installations are assemblages of heteroclite photographs certainly inspired by their neighbors the punks.
In 1977 the socialists progress too much to their liking. They create a series of 17 prophetic works under the title Red Morning to predict by the subtitles all the coming disasters including Attack, Death, Dirt, Scandal.
Each opus is a regular rectangle of three to five elements in each row and column. The images are divided into three themes : the self-portrait of one or the other of the two artists standing in shirt-sleeves in a vulnerable attitude, large buildings in the City and the urban surrounding reflected in a puddle. Some elements are colored in dark red.
Hate is a 240 x 200 cm collage of sixteen elements 60 x 50 cm. The twelve photos of the perimeter are colored. This artwork was sold for $ 1,8M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013.
With the offbeat and always unpredictable humor that characterizes the duo, Hell is the only one of the 17 murals that has not been colored at all. In the same format as Hate, it is signed George and Gilbert. Hell is estimated £ 800K for sale by Christie's in London on October 3, lot 21.
They are anti-conformists in all their actions. When they declare themselves royalists, it is because they perceive in the communism the threat of a social leveling. Their mural installations are assemblages of heteroclite photographs certainly inspired by their neighbors the punks.
In 1977 the socialists progress too much to their liking. They create a series of 17 prophetic works under the title Red Morning to predict by the subtitles all the coming disasters including Attack, Death, Dirt, Scandal.
Each opus is a regular rectangle of three to five elements in each row and column. The images are divided into three themes : the self-portrait of one or the other of the two artists standing in shirt-sleeves in a vulnerable attitude, large buildings in the City and the urban surrounding reflected in a puddle. Some elements are colored in dark red.
Hate is a 240 x 200 cm collage of sixteen elements 60 x 50 cm. The twelve photos of the perimeter are colored. This artwork was sold for $ 1,8M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013.
With the offbeat and always unpredictable humor that characterizes the duo, Hell is the only one of the 17 murals that has not been colored at all. In the same format as Hate, it is signed George and Gilbert. Hell is estimated £ 800K for sale by Christie's in London on October 3, lot 21.
1977-1980 Twenty One Lies of a Young Woman
2014 SOLD for $ 6.8M including premium
Photography and cinema are lies. Cindy Sherman began her series of Untitled Film Stills in 1977, aged 23. She is not an actress and her photos are not linked to any movie. However, she is directly inspired by European cinema: Hitchcock, Bardot, Loren.
Her only theme is herself in ever changing situations that are not related to her real life. After the first group of views, she changes her face, her hair, her age. On each image, she is alone. The gaze is more or less in complicity with the voyeur. When she closes the series in 1980, she had achieved a remarkable overview of the life of any modern young woman.
The edition of the Untitled Film Stills is in black and white 25 x 20 cm with a maximum of ten prints per view. Twenty one photos from a collection are for sale in one lot at Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 13 estimated $ 6M. Curiously, this lot includes only views from those printed in ten copies, raising hopes that rarest photos will appear in other sales.
This group ranges from number 2 to 83, providing an excellent demonstration of the variety in the series: private interiors of 1977, New York, holidays, as well as funny or tragic images such as with the diving mask or the swollen eye. View 48 shows the hitchhiker of which another copy was sold for $ 1,56M including premium at Christie's on November 12, 2013.
Nobody can better comment on the creative work of Cindy Sherman than the artist herself. I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
Her only theme is herself in ever changing situations that are not related to her real life. After the first group of views, she changes her face, her hair, her age. On each image, she is alone. The gaze is more or less in complicity with the voyeur. When she closes the series in 1980, she had achieved a remarkable overview of the life of any modern young woman.
The edition of the Untitled Film Stills is in black and white 25 x 20 cm with a maximum of ten prints per view. Twenty one photos from a collection are for sale in one lot at Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 13 estimated $ 6M. Curiously, this lot includes only views from those printed in ten copies, raising hopes that rarest photos will appear in other sales.
This group ranges from number 2 to 83, providing an excellent demonstration of the variety in the series: private interiors of 1977, New York, holidays, as well as funny or tragic images such as with the diving mask or the swollen eye. View 48 shows the hitchhiker of which another copy was sold for $ 1,56M including premium at Christie's on November 12, 2013.
Nobody can better comment on the creative work of Cindy Sherman than the artist herself. I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
(1955) 1978 Dovima in a Dior Gown
2010 SOLD 840 K€ including premium
The fashion photography, as the wall posters, must attract the attention of increasingly bored passers-by. In this category, Dovima with Elephants by Richard Avedon is one of the greatest achievements of the twentieth century.
We are in August 1955. Dior prepares his fall collection. Dovima, who had posed for Irving Penn, is one of the most famous supermodels of her generation.
The photograph shows Dovima in a Dior dress, among the elephants of the Cirque d'Hiver. She reaches out toward the ear of one of the animals in a theatrical gesture that we should not look for meaning. The other elephant, which we imagine being annoyed by this story, raises the trunk and a leg. The image is shared by Subastas Siglo XXI.
The gown also is historic: it was the first evening dress designed by Yves Saint-Laurent for Christian Dior.
In Paris on November 20, Christie's holds a sale of works owned by the Richard Avedon Foundation. The photograph of Dovima, estimated € 400K, is the largest existing exhibition print of this image.
POST SALE COMMENT
This silver print made in 1978 is huge, 217 x 167 cm. It deserves its exceptional price, € 840K including premium.
We are in August 1955. Dior prepares his fall collection. Dovima, who had posed for Irving Penn, is one of the most famous supermodels of her generation.
The photograph shows Dovima in a Dior dress, among the elephants of the Cirque d'Hiver. She reaches out toward the ear of one of the animals in a theatrical gesture that we should not look for meaning. The other elephant, which we imagine being annoyed by this story, raises the trunk and a leg. The image is shared by Subastas Siglo XXI.
The gown also is historic: it was the first evening dress designed by Yves Saint-Laurent for Christian Dior.
In Paris on November 20, Christie's holds a sale of works owned by the Richard Avedon Foundation. The photograph of Dovima, estimated € 400K, is the largest existing exhibition print of this image.
POST SALE COMMENT
This silver print made in 1978 is huge, 217 x 167 cm. It deserves its exceptional price, € 840K including premium.
1978 Self Portrait of Cindy as a Young Actress
2008 SOLD 900 K$ including premium
Christie's New York offers on September 9, for $ 300 K, at lot 97, a nice photo of Cindy Sherman. It is a one of its kind 50x40 cm black and white photo, signed and dated 1978.
The title is significant: Untitled Film Still # 13. Wikipedia tells us that this early series of Sherman include about 80 images. Imitating the photographic prints made for promotion of feature films, Cindy already plays the dual role of photographer and model that will launch her glory. Taking the pretext of getting a book on a high shelf of a bookcase, the 24-year-old blonde displays herself in a pose at once serious and attractive.
Sherman has many admirers, sensitive to her imagery on woman's place in society. Always changing, she is both everyone and nobody.
The same auction house has already sold some Untitled Film Stills. On 17 October 2007, for $ 205 K, we saw her coming down the stairs of an official building (Still # 22, 70 x 88 cm, from an edition of 6). On following 14 November, for $ 187 K, we saw a brunette preparing her bag in her living room (Still # 12, 20 x 25 cm, from an edition of 10). The Still # 41, sold £ 85 K on October 16, shows her alone in an empty yard (60 x 92 cm, from an edition of 3).
Which of these young women is the "real" Cindy? None, and all. But the most beautiful is the # 13, the only of these four where you see her in close up. $ 300 K? Why not, I remind you that this photo is unique.
POST SALE COMMENT
This photo was unique and exceptional. We appreciate that Christie's was fully aware of that when we look at the lot description in the catalog and at its presentation on the siteweb as the highlight of this first major sale of the season.
Buyers followed: 900 K$ including fees for this image representing what was best in the beginning of Sherman's career. It is an excellent result.
The title is significant: Untitled Film Still # 13. Wikipedia tells us that this early series of Sherman include about 80 images. Imitating the photographic prints made for promotion of feature films, Cindy already plays the dual role of photographer and model that will launch her glory. Taking the pretext of getting a book on a high shelf of a bookcase, the 24-year-old blonde displays herself in a pose at once serious and attractive.
Sherman has many admirers, sensitive to her imagery on woman's place in society. Always changing, she is both everyone and nobody.
The same auction house has already sold some Untitled Film Stills. On 17 October 2007, for $ 205 K, we saw her coming down the stairs of an official building (Still # 22, 70 x 88 cm, from an edition of 6). On following 14 November, for $ 187 K, we saw a brunette preparing her bag in her living room (Still # 12, 20 x 25 cm, from an edition of 10). The Still # 41, sold £ 85 K on October 16, shows her alone in an empty yard (60 x 92 cm, from an edition of 3).
Which of these young women is the "real" Cindy? None, and all. But the most beautiful is the # 13, the only of these four where you see her in close up. $ 300 K? Why not, I remind you that this photo is unique.
POST SALE COMMENT
This photo was unique and exceptional. We appreciate that Christie's was fully aware of that when we look at the lot description in the catalog and at its presentation on the siteweb as the highlight of this first major sale of the season.
Buyers followed: 900 K$ including fees for this image representing what was best in the beginning of Sherman's career. It is an excellent result.
1978 Cindy in the City
2012 SOLD 750 K$ including premium
The young actresses are playing a different role from one film to another. They are dressed, made-up, staged with a variety that is masking their true personality.
From the Film Stills, her first series then in black and white, Cindy Sherman does the opposite. She needs neither a director nor a cinematographer to photograph herself, embodying the variety of daily emotions of all the women in the world. All photos in this series are Untitled: these images that look like stills are not linked to any real movie.
On March 9 in New York, Sotheby's sells Untitled Film Still # 21, 1 from an edition of 10 made in 1978, size 20 x 25 cm. Here is the link to the catalog.
This is one of very few early photos of Cindy where the face is in close up. Well lit by the sun, she is shown as she was looking in true life. No, it would be too simple.
Cindy's face is perfectly sharp in front of an array of skyscrapers that are somehow blurry. The angle of shooting down to top is always favorable to suggest strength. The catalog considers it as an achievement of feminism, the image of the businesswoman who just competes with men for world domination. This pleasant allegory is estimated $ 150K.
No, it deserves better. Have a close look. The oval locks of hair under a crown-shaped hat are those of a statue, like also the gaze that turns to one side and seems empty. A too small mouth endeavours to avoid a smile, like the Statue of Liberty. The role of Cindy in the picture # 21 seems to be that of Bartholdi's masterpiece dominating New York.
Magritte would have loved this real 24 year old woman disguised as a monumental sculpture.
POST SALE COMMENT
I was right, it deserved better. This photo was sold $ 750K including premium.
From the Film Stills, her first series then in black and white, Cindy Sherman does the opposite. She needs neither a director nor a cinematographer to photograph herself, embodying the variety of daily emotions of all the women in the world. All photos in this series are Untitled: these images that look like stills are not linked to any real movie.
On March 9 in New York, Sotheby's sells Untitled Film Still # 21, 1 from an edition of 10 made in 1978, size 20 x 25 cm. Here is the link to the catalog.
This is one of very few early photos of Cindy where the face is in close up. Well lit by the sun, she is shown as she was looking in true life. No, it would be too simple.
Cindy's face is perfectly sharp in front of an array of skyscrapers that are somehow blurry. The angle of shooting down to top is always favorable to suggest strength. The catalog considers it as an achievement of feminism, the image of the businesswoman who just competes with men for world domination. This pleasant allegory is estimated $ 150K.
No, it deserves better. Have a close look. The oval locks of hair under a crown-shaped hat are those of a statue, like also the gaze that turns to one side and seems empty. A too small mouth endeavours to avoid a smile, like the Statue of Liberty. The role of Cindy in the picture # 21 seems to be that of Bartholdi's masterpiece dominating New York.
Magritte would have loved this real 24 year old woman disguised as a monumental sculpture.
POST SALE COMMENT
I was right, it deserved better. This photo was sold $ 750K including premium.
1979 Woman on the Road
2015 SOLD for $ 2.96M including premium
The series Untitled Film Stills by Cindy Sherman offers the game of the young woman, director and sole subject of this set in a full range of attitudes. The picture numbered 48, however, is different.
The photo nicknamed The hitchhiker by her author was taken in 1979 during a holiday in Arizona. It impresses in its mystery. The woman is alone on a road in the countryside. Who is she? Why is she at this place? Where would she like to go?
She has turned for watching the empty horizon with her trunk behind her for a long time. Her long skirt and flat shoes are outdated. The black and white increases the drama, like in Hitchcock: is her hair blond or white?
Under the thick clouds, shadows invade the valley of an unidentified river. If it is dawn, there is hope. If it is twilight, what can happen to this solitary woman? Cindy understands the role of the subconscious in her creative act. Inspired by cinema, she knows that she reconstructs the tragic fate of fragile women who are watched, followed and threatened.
# 48 was edited in 1979 in 10 copies in format 20 x 25 cm. The number 5/10 was sold for $ 1,56M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013. The number 2/10 was a highlight within the lot of 21 Untitled Film Stills that sold for $ 6.8 million including premium on 12 November 2014, also at Christie's.
In the same year, 1979, it was also edited in 3 large format copies 76 x 102 cm (30 x 40 inches). The number 1/3 is estimated $ 2.5M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 64B.
The photo nicknamed The hitchhiker by her author was taken in 1979 during a holiday in Arizona. It impresses in its mystery. The woman is alone on a road in the countryside. Who is she? Why is she at this place? Where would she like to go?
She has turned for watching the empty horizon with her trunk behind her for a long time. Her long skirt and flat shoes are outdated. The black and white increases the drama, like in Hitchcock: is her hair blond or white?
Under the thick clouds, shadows invade the valley of an unidentified river. If it is dawn, there is hope. If it is twilight, what can happen to this solitary woman? Cindy understands the role of the subconscious in her creative act. Inspired by cinema, she knows that she reconstructs the tragic fate of fragile women who are watched, followed and threatened.
# 48 was edited in 1979 in 10 copies in format 20 x 25 cm. The number 5/10 was sold for $ 1,56M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013. The number 2/10 was a highlight within the lot of 21 Untitled Film Stills that sold for $ 6.8 million including premium on 12 November 2014, also at Christie's.
In the same year, 1979, it was also edited in 3 large format copies 76 x 102 cm (30 x 40 inches). The number 1/3 is estimated $ 2.5M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 64B.
1981 Cindy Sherman in Centerfold
2011 SOLD 3.9 M$ including premium
Cindy Sherman is the only subject of her art, yet she deals with the modern woman in her entirety. Her photos can be grouped in series, but they are all different, for clothing, makeup, location, action, psychology, design.
From 1977 to 1980, the thread was the Film Still as a parody of movie photos in black and white.
Working in color in 1981, she created the Centerfolds series for a project of Artforum magazine. This set of twelve images is inspired by the photographs published in the center pages of magazines of fashion or charm, like in Playboy.
The examples I have seen in the databases of the auction houses were printed in ten copies in 60 x 120 cm. The best results were obtained by Christie's on # 92, $ 2.1 million including premium on May 16, 2007, and on # 88, $ 1.4 million including premium on November 9, 2010.
A copy of # 96 is for sale by Christie's in New York on May 11. Lying on her back, the young woman daydreams, crumpling a newspaper of classifieds. She is dressed like a wise teenager, but the makeup reveals that she thinks about her future.
This image is both simple and strong and deserves an estimate of $ 1.5 M. Considering that the greatest artists are those who best express the universe in which we live, Cindy Sherman is one of them. Unquestionably.
(References marked with # above are those of Metro Pictures archive).
POST SALE COMMENT
This is perhaps the most extraordinary result of this session of sales of postwar and contemporary art in New York: $ 3.9 million including premium. The best photos, when they are signed Sherman or Gursky, are major art works in their own right.
This photo is illustrated on the post sale article shared by Art Market Monitor.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
From 1977 to 1980, the thread was the Film Still as a parody of movie photos in black and white.
Working in color in 1981, she created the Centerfolds series for a project of Artforum magazine. This set of twelve images is inspired by the photographs published in the center pages of magazines of fashion or charm, like in Playboy.
The examples I have seen in the databases of the auction houses were printed in ten copies in 60 x 120 cm. The best results were obtained by Christie's on # 92, $ 2.1 million including premium on May 16, 2007, and on # 88, $ 1.4 million including premium on November 9, 2010.
A copy of # 96 is for sale by Christie's in New York on May 11. Lying on her back, the young woman daydreams, crumpling a newspaper of classifieds. She is dressed like a wise teenager, but the makeup reveals that she thinks about her future.
This image is both simple and strong and deserves an estimate of $ 1.5 M. Considering that the greatest artists are those who best express the universe in which we live, Cindy Sherman is one of them. Unquestionably.
(References marked with # above are those of Metro Pictures archive).
POST SALE COMMENT
This is perhaps the most extraordinary result of this session of sales of postwar and contemporary art in New York: $ 3.9 million including premium. The best photos, when they are signed Sherman or Gursky, are major art works in their own right.
This photo is illustrated on the post sale article shared by Art Market Monitor.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1981 Big Nudes on High Heeled Shoes
2015 SOLD for $ 900K including premium
Helmut Newton was working for erotic magazines. He mostly wanted to altogether charm and shock. In 1981, with his series of Big Nudes, he made large prints in great sharpness with a scathing light on the skin of the models.
Sie kommen is a diptych which provides a key for reading the series. In the left element, four women are elegantly dressed as for a fashion show. They walk towards the operator. On the right picture, they are in the same position but they stripped everything excepted their high heeled shoes that increase their sculptural attitude.
A print of this diptych in four panels 193 x 98 cm very close to life size was sold for $ 660K including premium by Christie's on December 16, 2008.
The same group is shown on a triptych entitled Walking Women, Paris. They are standing in slightly varying positions and once again completely naked over their shoes. Newton had left them a freedom of movement and probably chose among many negatives three images that best expressed the charm and the strangeness of the scene.
This triptych in an image format 135 x 113 cm each in three separate mounts 172 x 150 cm is estimated $ 700K, lot 8 for sale byPhillips in New York on April 1.
Sie kommen is a diptych which provides a key for reading the series. In the left element, four women are elegantly dressed as for a fashion show. They walk towards the operator. On the right picture, they are in the same position but they stripped everything excepted their high heeled shoes that increase their sculptural attitude.
A print of this diptych in four panels 193 x 98 cm very close to life size was sold for $ 660K including premium by Christie's on December 16, 2008.
The same group is shown on a triptych entitled Walking Women, Paris. They are standing in slightly varying positions and once again completely naked over their shoes. Newton had left them a freedom of movement and probably chose among many negatives three images that best expressed the charm and the strangeness of the scene.
This triptych in an image format 135 x 113 cm each in three separate mounts 172 x 150 cm is estimated $ 700K, lot 8 for sale byPhillips in New York on April 1.
1982 Richard Prince, Plagiarist of Fashion
2016 SOLD for $ 2.85M including premium
It is not always easy to extract the truth from the statements of a plagiarist. Richard Prince is undoubtedly ambitious and certainly an asocial who admired Pollock and wanted to construct and express his own vision of the world. We trust him when he says that he has no photographic talent. He will become the flagship of appropriation art. He is also a provoking character.
Artists are appealed by recuperation around 1980. Before the digital age, the world is already flooded with the lying photographs of the consumerism. The bypassing of these images, while challenging the copyright laws, becomes a new art that expresses the profound reality of the contemporary world. A rule made in 2013 is now case law : Prince does not copy the images, he transforms them.
He got a job wonderfully adapted to his desire : employee in the tear sheet department of Time magazine, he was paid to cut the pages for sending to the customer the legal evidence of the actual publication of the advertisement. The pitch is quickly taken : he will shear the magazines for his own art.
Prince does not know to photograph from nature but is skilled to copy documents from which he has carefully removed the texts. The result is weird : stripped of its wording, an ordinary picture becomes surrealist and expresses the profound imbalance in a society driven by the marketing.
From 1982 to 1984, Prince realizes his series Untitled (Fashion) with images of young women whose eyes were clogged in the original advertisement for whatever a fool idea of a marketing agent. The black and white prints are re-photographed by Prince on color film. The artist has already appreciated the incentive of large size and scarcity, and his editions are made from that early time in very small quantities.
The sale by Christie's in New York on May 10 includes two examples from this rare series.
Lot 3 B estimated $ 1.5M, Ektacolor 102 x 71 cm dated 1982 by the artist, is the artist's proof from an edition of only one other copy. Lot 4 B estimated $ 1 million is a unique Ektacolor 152 x 102 cm dated 1982-1984 and numbered 1/1 by the artist; this photo was sold for £ 740K including premium by Christie's on 30 June 2008.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
Lot 3 B : $ 2.85M ; Lot 4 B : $ 2.4M
Artists are appealed by recuperation around 1980. Before the digital age, the world is already flooded with the lying photographs of the consumerism. The bypassing of these images, while challenging the copyright laws, becomes a new art that expresses the profound reality of the contemporary world. A rule made in 2013 is now case law : Prince does not copy the images, he transforms them.
He got a job wonderfully adapted to his desire : employee in the tear sheet department of Time magazine, he was paid to cut the pages for sending to the customer the legal evidence of the actual publication of the advertisement. The pitch is quickly taken : he will shear the magazines for his own art.
Prince does not know to photograph from nature but is skilled to copy documents from which he has carefully removed the texts. The result is weird : stripped of its wording, an ordinary picture becomes surrealist and expresses the profound imbalance in a society driven by the marketing.
From 1982 to 1984, Prince realizes his series Untitled (Fashion) with images of young women whose eyes were clogged in the original advertisement for whatever a fool idea of a marketing agent. The black and white prints are re-photographed by Prince on color film. The artist has already appreciated the incentive of large size and scarcity, and his editions are made from that early time in very small quantities.
The sale by Christie's in New York on May 10 includes two examples from this rare series.
Lot 3 B estimated $ 1.5M, Ektacolor 102 x 71 cm dated 1982 by the artist, is the artist's proof from an edition of only one other copy. Lot 4 B estimated $ 1 million is a unique Ektacolor 152 x 102 cm dated 1982-1984 and numbered 1/1 by the artist; this photo was sold for £ 740K including premium by Christie's on 30 June 2008.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
Lot 3 B : $ 2.85M ; Lot 4 B : $ 2.4M
1983 Spiritual America by Richard Prince
2014 SOLD for $ 4M including premium by Christie's
1986 The Appropriation of the Cowboy
2015 SOLD for $ 1.15M including premium
Photography went to become a new art when it lost its relationship with realism. Painters used this paradox in the early 1960s with the appropriation by Warhol of images cut from magazines. Gerhard Richter and Vija Celmins ventured into reproductions of blurred photos.
Around 1981, Richard Prince sees the Marlboro Man in all magazines. The cowboy wandering with cattle in the endless deserts of the Wild West was a good choice for an advertising campaign because it flattered the nostalgia of the citizens for the adventurous past of their ancestors, also highlighted by western movies.
Prince appropriates the best color photographs of cowboys, whether or not already used by Marlboro. What matters is to display the beautiful picture of a typical cowboy with his Stetson, vest and spurs.
When the character and his horses are in full action, that is even better. On June 28, 2012, Phillips sold for £ 600K including premium an image offering all these qualities. This Ektacolor 69 x 102 cm was the artist's proof from its 1986 edition in two commercial units.
The same print is now estimated $ 1M for sale on March 3 in New York by the same auction house, lot 8.
Richard Prince's cowboys had opened in the early 1980s a new era of photography along with the changing faces of Cindy Sherman. The next phase will be characterized by digitization with the transfers by Richard Prince of cover pages from novels and with the endlessly detailed scenes by Andreas Gursky.
Around 1981, Richard Prince sees the Marlboro Man in all magazines. The cowboy wandering with cattle in the endless deserts of the Wild West was a good choice for an advertising campaign because it flattered the nostalgia of the citizens for the adventurous past of their ancestors, also highlighted by western movies.
Prince appropriates the best color photographs of cowboys, whether or not already used by Marlboro. What matters is to display the beautiful picture of a typical cowboy with his Stetson, vest and spurs.
When the character and his horses are in full action, that is even better. On June 28, 2012, Phillips sold for £ 600K including premium an image offering all these qualities. This Ektacolor 69 x 102 cm was the artist's proof from its 1986 edition in two commercial units.
The same print is now estimated $ 1M for sale on March 3 in New York by the same auction house, lot 8.
Richard Prince's cowboys had opened in the early 1980s a new era of photography along with the changing faces of Cindy Sherman. The next phase will be characterized by digitization with the transfers by Richard Prince of cover pages from novels and with the endlessly detailed scenes by Andreas Gursky.
