Signed Richard Prince Untitled (original) Artwork

Prince, Richard. Untitled (original)[Steal Big]. 2008.

33 x 37 inches; gouache on board (painting); printed paperback book; heavy gray metal frame; solid wood supports.

Signed and dated on verso.

In 2000, Richard Prince commenced a series of works he called Untitled (original), which paired vintage adult novels with their authentic cover artwork in a contemporary "diptych" in order to visually document the progression from conceptual painting to published jacket. This vividly colored and rendered gouache painting on board—signed by the original artist—was used for the cover of the pulp novel Steal Big, and, joined together with Prince's own signature on the verso, underlines even more pointedly Prince's long aesthetic tradition of artistic appropriation, as well as his well-known bibliophilia.