Shortcut Full search								<Previous 2000-2009 work Next 2000-2009 work> Richard Prince, My Neighbor, 2002. Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 81 x 2 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council and Executive Committee Members: Edythe Broad, Elaine Terner Cooper, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Harry David, Gail May Engelberg, Nicki Harris, Ronnie Heyman, Dakis Joannou, Barbara Lane. 2002.35. © Richard Prince.
								Part of the generation of "appropriation" artists who emerged in the early 1980s, Richard Prince (b. 1949, Panama Canal Zone) engages in a practice that has consistently questioned the tropes of authenticity and originality in art making. Known for using images of consumer goods and advertising icons such as the Marlboro Man in his work, Prince has also seized upon the joke as a popular form to be lifted out of its original context and thrust into art. In his joke paintings, the words are superimposed, fragmented, or spliced together and sometimes difficult to discern. The fragmentation of the language matches the restless, abstract treatment of the paint. This disconnection is heightened by the thickly applied and often dark pigment, as in My Neighbor. Perhaps Prince uses this technique to obscure and confound the work's meaning. —Meghan Dailey