On offer Richard Prince’s (RP) controversial 2014 Instagram portraits. I offer this on occasion of new appropriations/works being exhibited now at Larry Gagosian’s Beverly Hills Gallery (February 06 - March 21, 2020). We offer a stretched 2015 SUICIDE GIRLS copy of Richard Prince’s unauthorized copy of the SUICIDE GIRLS IG post from 2014 (Originally offered for $90 by Suicide Girls after their discovery that RP’s Gagosian Gallery sale price of $90K). Prince’s ‘creations’ were sold at New York’s 2015 Frieze where authorship, blue chip, appropriation, market, all clashed. These are Inkjet on canvas IG copies on canvas. Immediately reaction was loud amongst everyone but the buyers of these $90K appropriations which sold out at FRIEZE.

Richard Prince’s practice of taking images from other sources without permission, changing them minimally (if at all), presenting them as his own work and selling them with a hefty price tag is still proving controversial.

The artist’s most recent works are screenshots from Instagram, blown up and inkjet-printed on six-foot canvas, the only other changes to the images being cryptic remarks by Prince added to the comment threads. When Prince first presented the works at the Gagosian Gallery in New York September 2014, Art critic Jerry Saltz described them as “genius trolling”, though others were less enthusiastic.

At the Frieze Art Fair 2015, Prince presented a new set of Instagram pictures mainly taken from the feed belonging to SuicideGirls, a community of models and burlesque performers with a punk rock aesthetic.

One of the women in the photographs, Doe Deere, posted on Instagram that she had been told the picture of her had been sold for $90,000.

Rather than sue Richard Prince, Suicide Girls founder Selena Mooney, known as Missy Suicide, had posted on the groups website that she would sell prints of the images for $90, with proceeds going to charity. She wrote:

If I had a nickel for every time someone used our images without our permission in a commercial endeavour I’d be able to spend $90,000 on art. I was once really annoyed by Forever 21 selling shirts with our slightly altered images on them, but an artist?

Richard Prince is an artist and he found the images we and our girls publish on Instagram as representative of something worth commenting on, part of the zeitgeist, I guess? Thanks Richard!

In a Post retweeted by Prince, she concluded: “Do we have Mr. Prince’s permission to sell these prints? We have the same permission from him that he had from us. :)”

Five years later these have become highly collectable and sought after and rare. The edition from Suicide Girls is unknown (but small 250-500 prints). For example, “Cat from Hell” bought 5 years ago from Gagosian are now worth near $150K (which is asking price now of works shown in Beverly Hills). Please write for a bespoke shipping quote and all queries!

Images shown are: Canvas for sale, 2014 Gagosian show NYC, Frieze 2015, Reactions, Beverly Hills Show 2020, and final my offer.

Size: 167 × 124 cm (65” × 48” inches)

Condition: MINT. Stretched on fine wooden bars.