Seldom has an exhibition so clearly defined a museum programme as Spiritual America did at the IVAM Centre del Carme. The architecture of this part of the museum is highly representative and pushes younger or mid-career artists to make specific installations; whereas the Centre Julio González exhibits art histories in their most representative tendencies and names. With a catalogue conceived by the artist as an art piece in itself, Richard Prince (Panama Canal Zone, 1949) began what was known as the Col·lecció Centre del Carme series of publications. Many of these, as well as some of the posters in the series, (in this case also designed by Prince) became cult publications.
The work of Richard Prince is known for his appropriation of images from the mass media (television advertisements, films, magazines and other sources), for conversion into autonomous art works in which opposing elements are paired. The idea of the autonomous art work is disputed, with some seeing art as an ideological instrument and others as a thing in itself, in isolation, with its own rules of communication. Whichever way we see it, Prince considers that any situation can give rise to an image that can then become an artwork susceptible to interpretation.
The principle content of this exhibition was a series of photographs ‘lifted’ from Marlboro cowboy adverts, and the re-use of comic strips from magazines, particularly the New Yorker. In answer to critiques of his work claiming that he had “stolen” images from other photographers or graphic designers, Prince has always preferred to describe his work as “piracy”. Piracy here is the same thing that multinational brands do when they appropriate identities and principles – such as freedom – to encourage consumption of their products. Spiritual America confirms the IVAM’s support of pluralistic, critical, contemporary pop art.
