Seriously

While I’m the first to hate Richard Prince without really having seen much of his work, I found Martha Schwendener’s scathing critique of his work and current show in this week’s Village Voice to be sophomoric. I agree: he’s a symbol of the art market and what it will be immune to; he’s searching for a new shock that shakes as much as his appropriation work did; he’s competitive. What else is new. Plus, her idea that he – and what he represents – has triumphed over feminist movement that imploded is a bit of an easy punch. Feels old. My humble opinion.

This said, I think we have to add Prince’s joke paintings to our list of text-based art. I like their faux-pas-ness, I do. But my hunch is that they are affect, like the rest of his shit. He lucked out on this one.