Richard Prince's 'American Prayer' at BnF: Appropriation and American Culture

The Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris hosts 'American Prayer,' an exhibition by Richard Prince from March 29 to June 26, 2011. Curated by Bob Rubin, the show pairs Prince's personal collection of rare books—including a copy of 'Naked Lunch' annotated by William Burroughs, the manuscript of Jack Kerouac's 'Big Sur,' and 'Lolita' in twenty languages—with rare books and manuscripts by Rimbaud, Céline, Cocteau, and Genet. Also on view are paintings and works that shed new light on Prince's engagement with American popular culture. The exhibition's title references Jim Morrison and the Doors' posthumous album 'American Prayer.' In an interview with Massimiliano Gioni, Prince discusses his collection, his early exposure to Paris during the 1968 protests, and his views on appropriation, clichés, and the nature of images. He describes his book collection as 'beat hippie punk,' spanning from Orwell's '1984' (1949) to the present. Prince reflects on his time at Time-Life's Tear Sheets department, where he tore out ads, and his admiration for Warhol, whose death he says immediately made him miss him. He identifies his work as a form of collecting and emphasizes the truth of clichés. The exhibition is a dialogue between Prince's appropriated imagery and the library's historical holdings.