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Richard Prince Nurse with wings

c. 2003
2 original pulp book covers, acrylic, erotic clippings and collage laid in to the 'true first' edition of Prince's 'Nurse Paintings' catalogue
Signed in pencil on lower right of opposite page
One of only 3 Nurse Collages done in this style

The 'true first' edition of the 'Nurse Paintings' catalogue was riddled with typographical and color alignment issues and was ordered by Prince to be destroyed. Prince spared several copies of this misprint edition which were lettered and signed, a few were defaced, and 3 were turned into original pieces of art, this being one.

Prince, known to be one of the worlds most prolific bibliophiles, created the Nurse series of work based on the art found on the covers of vintage sleaze paperbacks. His process in making the Nurse Paintings involved enlarging the vintage artwork via inkjet print and then painting over them once printed to canvas. This piece, Nurse With Wings, stands out amongst all of his Nurse works as being unique do to the inclusion of the ACTUAL book cover (2, in fact, collaged together) and it's placement in what is already considered a rare item, the misprint edition catalogue.

Compared to the larger paintings in the Nurse series, there is a more immediate and intimate feel to Nurse With Wings, as his process is much more blatant - complete with scotch tape, glue and hand-cut and torn elements. One thing a collector of Princes work might also notice is the rarity of the male figure wearing the mask in this piece (the mask which is actually cut OUT of the face in this instance, as opposed to painted ON). It's also easy to recognize this collage as being the genesis to the DeKooning series that Prince began making a few years later, evident in the use of the fishnet underwear and multi-limbed characters - staples of the DeKooning books, marking just one more point of importance in this work.

Provenance: Untitled Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Image: 9.5 x 4.75 inches; Publication: 10 x 8 inches

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