“Prince and the Stolen Photographs”
The Guggenheim Museum was a very different museum experience. The circular structure makes the art take on a life of their own. You follow the spiral downwards from top to bottom, and can get lost in the movement surrounding the exhibits. Robert Prince’s “Spiritual America” almost has this sense of traveling as you move through it. It has its own journey Prince seems to expect you to embark on.
Prince’s exhibit has invoked vast responses from different groups of people. Many of the journals, newspaper people, and critics do not seem to appreciate his work. For the most part I can understand why. He is trying to emulate Andy Warhol, but does not succeed. He takes art already created by other people and somehow reuses and sometimes unjustly into his own version of art.
The exhibit from Prince I chose was the “Marlboro Men.” These men were the cigarette ads that tried to show cigarettes not only being cool, but the rugged, handsome men in these ads were healthy cowboys. They are all within western America, with nature being the focal point. They are almost always with horses, showing these men as cowboys. The nature background could change from some water base, as in a lake or river, to the forest or open valley. The cowboy is supposed to be the “icon of American man-hood.” This is then overshadowed by the aspect as written in the description about the exhibit, “the images draw on another potent construction of this figure – the hyper-masculinized gay sex symbol.” The Marlboro Men ads were more well known before the 1980’s but in the 1980 decade when being gay did not have to be as hidden as it did in the years preceding.
These pictures are purposefully a picturesque scene. They are supposed to bring a positive quality out of us that we will then associate with cigarettes. This idea was the forced to be abandoned when the truth about cigarettes was revealed to the world. Even though Prince was quoted saying people will smoke cigarettes before and after these ads, and he does not think these ads sold any cigarettes, I would have to disagree. Using a much liked figure, someone the women wanted to envision themselves with, and someone the men aspired to be, the Marlboro Men brought around an increase in their sales.
Aesthetically, I admired these pictures, when you take them away from their ad cycle. The composition, lighting, scenery, and of course the men, makes for an amazing photo. The colors are vibrant, coming to life with each movement. The day is typically a beautiful sunny day with little to no dark clouds. The men are almost always with their rugged handsome charm, doing something which is considered ‘manly.’ The scenery would be appealing to almost everyone. The greenery of the land, the blueness and clearness of the water, the bright and brilliant sky would attract almost anyone to the ads, which would then be the point. They would associate the cigarettes with these men, whether intentionally or not, and remember them. Prince did not originate these photographs. He took the original photograph, and took out the ad structure of it. These photographs, as clear and precise as these photographs were, were not original work. Knowing that, highly takes away the experience for me. I did not realize at the time of my museum experience these weren’t originals. I understand the idea behind postmodernism, but this has taken that idea to the next level that I feel it should never be taken to.
The Guggenheim Museum was a very different museum experience. The circular structure makes the art take on a life of their own. You follow the spiral downwards from top to bottom, and can get lost in the movement surrounding the exhibits. Robert Prince’s “Spiritual America” almost has this sense of traveling as you move through it. It has its own journey Prince seems to expect you to embark on.
Prince’s exhibit has invoked vast responses from different groups of people. Many of the journals, newspaper people, and critics do not seem to appreciate his work. For the most part I can understand why. He is trying to emulate Andy Warhol, but does not succeed. He takes art already created by other people and somehow reuses and sometimes unjustly into his own version of art.
The exhibit from Prince I chose was the “Marlboro Men.” These men were the cigarette ads that tried to show cigarettes not only being cool, but the rugged, handsome men in these ads were healthy cowboys. They are all within western America, with nature being the focal point. They are almost always with horses, showing these men as cowboys. The nature background could change from some water base, as in a lake or river, to the forest or open valley. The cowboy is supposed to be the “icon of American man-hood.” This is then overshadowed by the aspect as written in the description about the exhibit, “the images draw on another potent construction of this figure – the hyper-masculinized gay sex symbol.” The Marlboro Men ads were more well known before the 1980’s but in the 1980 decade when being gay did not have to be as hidden as it did in the years preceding.
These pictures are purposefully a picturesque scene. They are supposed to bring a positive quality out of us that we will then associate with cigarettes. This idea was the forced to be abandoned when the truth about cigarettes was revealed to the world. Even though Prince was quoted saying people will smoke cigarettes before and after these ads, and he does not think these ads sold any cigarettes, I would have to disagree. Using a much liked figure, someone the women wanted to envision themselves with, and someone the men aspired to be, the Marlboro Men brought around an increase in their sales.
Aesthetically, I admired these pictures, when you take them away from their ad cycle. The composition, lighting, scenery, and of course the men, makes for an amazing photo. The colors are vibrant, coming to life with each movement. The day is typically a beautiful sunny day with little to no dark clouds. The men are almost always with their rugged handsome charm, doing something which is considered ‘manly.’ The scenery would be appealing to almost everyone. The greenery of the land, the blueness and clearness of the water, the bright and brilliant sky would attract almost anyone to the ads, which would then be the point. They would associate the cigarettes with these men, whether intentionally or not, and remember them. Prince did not originate these photographs. He took the original photograph, and took out the ad structure of it. These photographs, as clear and precise as these photographs were, were not original work. Knowing that, highly takes away the experience for me. I did not realize at the time of my museum experience these weren’t originals. I understand the idea behind postmodernism, but this has taken that idea to the next level that I feel it should never be taken to.
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