RICHARD PRINCE'S BIG ART STINK

Richard Prince Visual essay: Purple # 10

Richard Prince has never shied away from taking "pulp" and making it into a kind of punk but his most recent show "Canal Zone" certainly took his penchant for revamped (and retrenched) vintage nude photos and amped up the antagonism level. Prince had to know and proper academics were going to be ruffled by the unabashed " bad-boyness" of the images. Of course this visual vocabulary has been manna for the fashion/art press (see Purple and W) but given that it was Prince's first Gagosian solo-show, one wonders if it truly rose to the occasion. Market performance wise that is. We're sure the true numbers on the sales will be sheathed but TI hears the word "underwhelming" might be appropriate.