In 1973, artist Richard Prince began working in the tear sheets department of publishing company Time Inc., cutting articles from magazines to fulfill internal requests. Prince realized he was drawn to the leftover clippings—often from advertising sections—and the relationships between these theatrical, artificial, and, in his words, “authorless pictures.” The artist’s early work consisted of cropping, enlarging, and rephotographing these images, then framing and exhibiting them as new works of art. Untitled (three women looking in the same direction), 1980, a work in Glenstone’s collection, presents three photographs of different women with relatively similar expressions, hairstyles, and makeup, who form a cohesive group by looking in the same direction. Excerpting these images from everyday advertisements and presenting them in series, Prince encourages viewers to reconsider the norms of the reality we all too often accept without question.

–From the Glenstone Field Guide