RICHARD PRINCE

THE ALBERTINA MUSEUM, VIENNA

It is with irony, humor, and an astute gaze that Richard Prince (b. 1949) exposes consumer society’s imagery. The New-York-based artist has dealt with the visual codes and fictions of US-American popular culture since the 1970s, looking into the mechanisms of authorship, originality, and media representation. He became famous for his legendary series Cowboys, in which re-photographed advertisements for Marlboro cigarettes featuring perspectives different from the original shot turn into critical reflections upon myths, masculinity, and media.

With an emphasis on his photographic oeuvre, Prince’s key medium, the ALBERTINA Museum devotes a major exhibition to Richard Prince spanning the period from the 1970s to the present. It showcases iconic series like Fashion, Gangs, and Cowboys, as well as rarely shown and hitherto unseen works—from his groundbreaking rephotography of advertising motifs and autobiography-based images from rural upstate New York to complex collages of found material.

Prince does not tire of approaching issues of appropriation from ever-new perspectives, the connections and interrelationships of which are in the focus of the presentation: at the interface of photography, painting, and sculpture, the show, comprising some 150 works, illustrates how consistently Prince’s work is steeped in photographic thought. Sometimes edited only to a minimal extent, his images unfold a dual effect: they are both analytical and seductive.

The exhibition is on view from 17 April until 16 August 2026.