Richard Prince, Cowboys and Capitalism

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ย. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 81

  • @RoelGort
    @RoelGort 3 ปีที่แล้ว +34

    Another great video, how this channel is still under the radar is beyond me

  • @curiousworld7912
    @curiousworld7912 4 ปีที่แล้ว +36

    If you ever want to read a book that completely deconstructs the ideal of 'the Western', read Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West'. But be warned; it is the most violent, unforgiving, and no-heroes-to-be-seen-here books you'll ever read, but it's probably much closer to the reality of the West (and it is based on historical events and people) that exists in literature. It's also one of the most poetically written books - beautiful language - I've ever read. That said; the lie behind the myth of the West is this idea of the 'rugged individual'. If you read any diaries or actual histories of those times, you find that people absolutely relied upon one another to survive. And (if there is a phrase I hate most in this world, it's 'manifest destiny') you'll also find that there were many nightmares attached to that particular 'American dream' (for example, the story of the Donner Party). To sum all this up; the lie of the myth of the West is symbolic of the lie of Capitalism. Both promise the individual benefits from the myths or the system, when in fact, the individual is simply the tool to promote the benefits of, and to sell, an idealized version of America and its economic system. This photo, and its context, seems to sum both up as much as did Warhol's use of commercialism in his art.

    • @bircheth
      @bircheth 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Blood Meridian is one of my favourites books not only because it alters the perception of history, but it attempts to answer some fundamental questions about the human condition. Glad to see it in the replies so quickly

    • @curiousworld7912
      @curiousworld7912 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@bircheth I've heard it described as the 'First Gnostic Western', which seems reasonable. And without giving anything away; I agree that it seriously brings into question just 'what is the nature of man'. All this to say, I'm glad Cormac McCarthy has a talent for writing, because damn...

    • @bircheth
      @bircheth 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@curiousworld7912 I don't know if you've read the other book he's well known for but The Road also opened my eyes as a young reader to just what could be communicated by storytelling

    • @curiousworld7912
      @curiousworld7912 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@bircheth Yes, I think I've read just about everything he's written. 'The Road' broke my heart and horrified me, but there was some faint flicker of hope in it and great love. It's probably tied for 2nd place on my list of favorite Cormac McCarthy books. He's an amazing story-teller, and an incredible writer. He's like 'Faulkner squared' or something.

    • @JEEDUHCHRI
      @JEEDUHCHRI ปีที่แล้ว +1

      “His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world’s turnings will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man’s will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.”
      -CM
      B.M.

  • @maxteeth
    @maxteeth 3 ปีที่แล้ว +28

    wow, i always made richard prince out to be the bad guy in this scenario, and i still don't necessarily like how he goes about his work, but that line about how the pictures don't belong to the photographers anymore, but to Marlboro, really hit me. because appropriating something from a corporation feels way less scummy than appropriating it from an independent artist.

  • @enkarg4372
    @enkarg4372 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    Great video, as always! Watching it, an idea came to my mind... Prince did exactly what cowboys normally did: he took something that wasn't his and sold it, like cowboys did with land, gold, even people... So basically he appropiated the icon of a company that had appropiated the figure of an appropiator! I think it's genius and very enlighting to reflect upon.

    • @vandolmatzis8146
      @vandolmatzis8146 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Cool thinking

    • @Moodboard39
      @Moodboard39 ปีที่แล้ว

      Um no!? Just theft

    • @Moodboard39
      @Moodboard39 ปีที่แล้ว

      Idk wtf u talking about

    • @nswick1
      @nswick1 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Cowboys shepherd cattle
      TH-camrs shepherd the cattle’s likes
      The more times change…

  • @empatheticrambo4890
    @empatheticrambo4890 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    As a Star Wars fan, I’ve found a lot of genre love for Cowboys, but adulthood and learning about politics has taught me to reassess. This video definitely helped

    • @nswick1
      @nswick1 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Imagine being an adult starwars fan
      Then imagine you have to “assess” politics on it
      I hope your Funko collection is insured

  • @lauraolap9921
    @lauraolap9921 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    it's funny because at the same time cowboys came from the mexican vaqueros, which came to existence (the concept of cowboys) because of the spanish who went from Ciudad de México to Santa Fe looking for gold and silver, and in this expeditions they went with vaqueros (cowboys) to guide and guard cows in their trips (they needed to go with cows because they usually settled in different parts while exploring) and later misioners taught the natives how to guide livestock with horses after conquering California, However, the heyday of the cowboy came when the civil war broke out in the United States and there was a great need to produce meat to feed the troops. On average (if paid, because It was common to just work for food and shelter) , white cowboys were paid thirty dollars a month, and Mexican, Indian, or black cowboys received about twenty dollars.

    • @roberttailspin6330
      @roberttailspin6330 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I'd argue that the 'heyday' for the version of cowboy that cinema and literature tends to peddle, is the period of the great cattle drives beginning with Goodnight and Loving in 1866. The cinema cowboy is a highly romanticized interpretation that is largely indifferent to period appropriate location and/or, accuracy. Hollywood is fond of cowboys wearing Stetsons and cowboy boots, brandishing cartridge revolvers and mending barbed wire fences, decades before they were invented, or were commonplace. As for wages, it should be mentioned that often, cowboys were only paid when actually hired on, and even then, were only paid money, if there was actually money available. In many cases, cowboys would work at a ranch without being hired on, in exchange for meals and a place to stay.

    • @lauraolap9921
      @lauraolap9921 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@roberttailspin6330 yes you are right, i'm not talking about the cinema heyday, i was talking about the economic relevance and the begginig of It all

    • @lauraolap9921
      @lauraolap9921 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@roberttailspin6330 also It was common for the time period to work for shelter and food so yes you are right i'll edit the first comment, i only said It was funny because cowboys are "The" american thing and i just wanted to Talk about the history of It and how much that concept was changed through time

    • @roberttailspin6330
      @roberttailspin6330 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@lauraolap9921 I'm very impressed by the horsemanship and roping skills of the working vaquero, which very much influenced the way cattle were/are managed by their northern neighbors. There's a standing joke in the modern world of western horsemanship, that 100 years ago, cowboys didn't even know what lead they were on... (not that it stopped them from being effective in their job). To my mind, there was a divergence in the natural evolution of the occupation that was punctualized with the great cattle drives. Until that point in time, though vaqueros were very skilled and engaged in working cattle, they had never had the need and/or opportunity to move cattle on such a large scale, over such a large distance. The American cowboy took what was known and through, need, trial and misadventure, ended up refining the process to the point where a relatively small crew was capable of moving herds of 3500 cattle to a destination of significant distance. Often the majority of the horses used on a drive were only green broke at the beginning of a drive and sold with the cattle upon reaching the destination. The finer points of moving great herds for months on end, is quite different from tending cattle on a home ranch, where one is likely to have horses more suitably trained for the purpose at hand. Again, to my mind, the needs and practices of a cowboy on a drive was going to differ significantly from the cowboy or vaquero that's usually working on a home ranch, so the idea of a 'cattle drive cowboy', is really a new thing... though the cowboys might come from local, or, afar, the perception of 'cattle drive cowboy' is quite unique and really an American thing.

    • @roberttailspin6330
      @roberttailspin6330 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@lauraolap9921 Very much agreed. The concept of 'cowboy' was evolving since cowboys first started doing 'cowboy stuff'. The contemporary people in the cities back east, usually had no first hand knowledge of real, working cowboys and relied upon sensationalized newspaper reports and/or sensationalized and romanticized, dime store novels. Later on, cinema made a staple out of the western genre.
      My own concept of 'cowboy' has been modified greatly over the years. These days, I'm living in a community with a significant Mennonite population. The Mennonites who ride horses are likely the closest thing I can compare to working cowboys of the mid-to-late 1800s.

  • @herrlindner
    @herrlindner 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    This channel is the best thing that's happened to me this year so far.

    • @TheCanvasArtHistory
      @TheCanvasArtHistory  2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Let me know if anything surpasses it! I'll do my best to stay up there for the next 51 weeks!

    • @herrlindner
      @herrlindner 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@@TheCanvasArtHistory 💓

  • @ThePooper3000
    @ThePooper3000 3 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Oh shiiiiiiiit, son! I'm glad you touched on Richard Prince and the cowboys. I've been fascinated by his work for years.
    Thank you for the great video. Don't know how I missed this when it was initially uploaded.
    As for what I think of Richard Prince and his method of art-making: I think that he makes work that's pretty damn prescient. He works without regard for what's his and what isn't his. Much like how most of the Internet operates nowadays, you make what you make using whatever you have. And often that involves incorporating other people's works into your own, even without asking; after all, most of this video was clips and stills of things you didn't make yourself. He even strengthened the case law for fair use for artists in the Cariou v. Prince copyright litigation. I consider Richard Prince to be a sort of forefather to the free-use culture of the Internet.

    • @TheCanvasArtHistory
      @TheCanvasArtHistory  3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Thank you so much for your super insightful comment! I'm happy you enjoyed the video and, you're right, we could look at Prince as some kind of precursor (alongside Duchamp and Warhol) to the internet's meme culture.
      Also, quite ironically, this video got demonetized for using copyrighted material.

  • @elijahculper5522
    @elijahculper5522 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I love this guy’s accent. I don’t know where he’s from, but it’s super cool. It’s also funny to me that he pronounces Louis L’Amour’s name like it’s French. Anyone I know who’s been into those books calls the author “Loo-ee La-more”

  • @de_do
    @de_do 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I draw for some years, while not sharing it anywehre outside of my friends bubble I must say, the quote at the end, it made me realize I do that. When I see something beautiful and get the urge to capture the moment, and others dont understand it, I explain it to them (with words or as the drawing) and they see it too... that is "the shift from somebody who makes something to somebody who recognizes and points it out"

  • @samuelbroad11
    @samuelbroad11 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    a few things this has made me think about, how we are a story telling primate and WHO shapes narrative is so important. Like, at the moment only Russia has oligarchs, here in the West we have entrepreneurs instead. About the many many people that are involved in a lot of art production, but only the 'artist' / owner gets credit. Which leads me to the greatest untold story in history, the Enclosure acts of England and the gradual theft of the Commons, a working history of real cooperation that showed that communism-lite really did work for a 1000 years (called the dark-ages). This is also where the word soviet comes from, small cooperatively run farmsteads; which existed successfully alongside landlord run ones. A history those of European descent should consider in an age of cultural appropriation, capitalism, colonisation, racism and (a forgotten) class war: we really did lose a lot, and we really did take a lot.
    I'm struck at how many exhibitions I see where the product has been produced by unnamed labour, the named artist really coming up with the 'idea' (read Intellectual Property) and therefore the credit, or even worse, the cult of the curator, where even artists are sidelined to the glorification of those who just gathered the body of work. Public Galleries are the worst for this.
    King Charles is now the largest landlord in the world, by a massive factor, my ancestors came from Cornwall, where Charles now owns 70% of the land, land that was commonly run successfully for many hundreds of years, a theft of peoples agency, and by a 1000 cuts, to justify inheritance and oligarchy.
    Which leads me to a Michael Parenti or Howard Zinn (I can't remember who!) quote I can only paraphrase about the colonisation of the americas and the context of third world or 'undeveloped' nations " they lost the artists, the architects, the historians, the linguists and we dare to call them undeveloped".
    You're well read, have you come across any good chapters about the Enclosure acts in anything you've read?
    Also, I haven't seen all your vids yet, but Hidden Hands, a book and then old BBC doco discusses the appropriation of Expressionism by the CIA (using company fronts) in the culture wars of the cold war, vs Russian heroic modernism. It's hard to find a copy these days, and only part one of the doco is on youtube.
    Personally, I've stopped producing art for a number of reasons for a wee while, but mainly due to me realising I'm actually subsidising my patrons at less than minimum wage, and find myself working other work to make ends meet, one of the reductions in creativity that capitalism removes from the spreadsheet. In fact, general indigence is such a huge cost to society I wonder if Ayn Rand and her "philosophy" has cost the planet more in suffering than all the dictators of the 20th century combined. Neo-Liberalism couldn't have come at a worse time for climate change, where global and national cooperation is needed, but we're sold it's individual consumerism that will solve the problem.
    Like your work, chur.
    Here's a vid of me back when I made art!
    th-cam.com/video/HPpKcDk1FWg/w-d-xo.html

  • @juliamavroidi8601
    @juliamavroidi8601 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I've often joked about American culture being just taking anothet culture and then replacing the main characters with cowboys.
    You can see it in folksongs when a sea shanty becomes Don't Bury Me In The Lone Prairie or a song about a British soldier becomes Streets of Toledo - whose cowboy somehow still asks for a soldier's burial with drums and pipes. You can see it with Westerns who adapt Japanese samurai movies - not always giving proper credit. (Interestingly the most famous example Fistful of Dollars which is plagiarized - appropriated? - from Yojimbo is an Italian film)
    It seems fitting that American culture would eventually take to appropriating itself. Only if the main character already is a cowboy, you can't replace him which then raises the question what exactly you changed to make it your own abd therefore if you made it your own in the first place.

    • @Moodboard39
      @Moodboard39 ปีที่แล้ว

      Is white folks who do that lol

    • @nswick1
      @nswick1 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      lol And here I often joke about non Americans just consuming and not offering anything at all
      The dumb Japanese comment is a lot funnier considering they were influenced by westerns them selves when they made those samurai movies

  • @heartlessmushroom
    @heartlessmushroom 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I find it interesting how The Cowboy, what was once an icon for ruthless capitalism, has been over time been appropiated as a symbol of justice for those oppressed by it. Cowboys went from being the lawmen to being the outlaws living in defiance of the system.
    Rango is the prime example when I think about this evolution in the archetype.

  • @thewalrus7916
    @thewalrus7916 4 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    A realy nice look on the traditional Western
    İn my opinion only way for a "cowboy" to work in a modern and realistic story is for him to be a anti-hero to be redeemed , like spaggetti westerns or even more so in anti-westerns (like RDR2)

  • @MHDebidour
    @MHDebidour ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Very interesting view on art and "cowboys", and you use to open "Once upon a time in the West" wich is the iconic italo-western by Sergio Leone who with a bunch of left-wing italan directors completly subverted the Western movies in the 60's/70's

  • @robknowles6152
    @robknowles6152 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Good exposure of the malign capitalist ethos, we here in New Zealand were also affected by myth and capitalism, but somehow the reliance on your neighbor was not overlooked, it was an element of survival, and remains in our culture. However, individualism is catching up fast

  • @storozhevoy7551
    @storozhevoy7551 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Never knew about this story, very interesting!

  • @levityoflonging22
    @levityoflonging22 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    The difference between what Prince did and the other examples you mentioned is that their appropriations were transformative. Warhol took those images and changed them to an extent, making them something new. One could argue that Prince was making a political statement, but it's harder to justify when he didn't alter the image at all.

    • @nswick1
      @nswick1 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Warhol actually didn’t change much if at all depending on the work and was a major innovator of appropriation art that started with Picasso and george braque with the invention of collage and more radically a bit later with Duchamp and his ready mades

  • @gobbagu
    @gobbagu 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    You'd like Cormac McCarthy if you find the West cheesy. As a Comanche, so do I lmao

    • @gobbagu
      @gobbagu 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      DUH SOMEBODY ALREADY SAID IT SORRY, JUST SAW IT

  • @user-ny8vq1on6m
    @user-ny8vq1on6m 19 วันที่ผ่านมา

    My friend, you’re on TH-cam, probably on a Mac, with a bunch of books by the same publisher behind you, furniture from Ikea or some other fancy place perhaps and you’re talking about capitalism? In a negative way? Capitalism has given us a great life. We look for terrible ways to perceive it, and this was one of those moments. Although I see how the American west can be this symbolic perception of capitalism, another symbol is a heroic symbol of the pilgrims, the pioneers, tough people who created the very country we live in and enjoy the fruits of their sacrifice. That to me is the cowboy archetype. It’s much deeper than CaPiTAlisM. Capitalism is the very foundation of our western world, among other philosophical innovations. We’ve been taught that it’s so evil, but it’s far more complex than good and evil. There’s a reason why the entire world wants to come here, and that is because of capitalism and its rewards and opportunities.
    In addition, its connection to masculinity is very significant as well. These American archetypes are essential because they provide the foundation for how to develop our culture in the future. If we try to fundamentally undermine every symbol, we will not have a culture left, which is a result of postmodernism’s attack on our culture. The cowboy is as integral as the baseball player, the boxer, the soldier, the nasa astronaut, etc. Symbols of Americana that has made our culture so beloved. Should we challenge the symbol, of course, but must it undermined and looked at as simply racist, dumb, dishonest, absolutely not.

  • @chuckeelhart1746
    @chuckeelhart1746 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thank you

  • @BobPagani
    @BobPagani 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    "Epitome" is pronounced E-pit-oh-me.

    • @NickyAztec
      @NickyAztec ปีที่แล้ว

      Yeah I also thought it was weird how he pronounced that

    • @BobPagani
      @BobPagani ปีที่แล้ว

      @@NickyAztec There's a lot of mispronunciations in these videos. I'm pretty sure it's a computer text-to-voice thing.

  • @chloefourte3413
    @chloefourte3413 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Kelis fucc'd upp. Now her writing credit is out since Beyonce removed the beat damnn

  • @wiandryadiwasistio2062
    @wiandryadiwasistio2062 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    it’s nice and all but last time i re-enacted this i got several cease-and-desist letters and tons of copyright violation claims handed by people that basically want me dead

  • @pauleluart
    @pauleluart 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    And what about the nurses?

  • @anyafeldman1777
    @anyafeldman1777 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Круто! Мне понравилось видео. А ещё я хочу оставить комментарий на русском

  • @filiptrubac1759
    @filiptrubac1759 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    ♥♥♥

  • @syntheticpolymer620
    @syntheticpolymer620 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I hope you appreciate the irony as you write those patreon plugs into your scripts after detailing all the evils of advertisement, power and capitalism

    • @thepants1450
      @thepants1450 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Buddy capitalism runs the world rn, if you don't participate you die. That doesn't devalue or discredit the criticism of the system we're born into. In fact that makes his point of imposed individualism even stronger. Definitely not the gotcha you think it is lol

    • @syntheticpolymer620
      @syntheticpolymer620 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@thepants1450 lmao marxists would be so much more tolerable if you could at least appreciate the comedy of your own schtick

    • @thepants1450
      @thepants1450 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@syntheticpolymer620 lol idk man you just seem to be sipping from a big glass of dunning kruger juice

    • @nswick1
      @nswick1 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Irony is often lost on those so close to the iron

  • @Zelda_Thorn
    @Zelda_Thorn 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    lwee lamoh?? EPITOHM??? 😂😂😂

  • @avzarathustra6164
    @avzarathustra6164 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Lol

  • @beesilva1201
    @beesilva1201 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    my god.......this is such a load of crap......