Two Jokes

As an art world provocateur, Richard Prince has challenged notions of ownership and authorship, transforming popular and consumer culture into high art that challenges American stereotypes and clichés. At first glance, Prince’s Joke Series paintings look like they contain a coherent joke, but with further inquiry, the viewer is struck by the joke’s obscurity. For example, in this iteration Prince’s Two Jokes combines two jokes in a disjointed manner–the opening line does not appear to match the punch line. The joke is not only situated on the surface of the painting, but it is also on the viewer who looks at the painting for deeper significance but is left with a joke that falls flat. Differing from his earlier monochromatic joke painting, Two Jokes, exhibits a different stylistic format. Whereas his monochromatic joke paintings from the 1980s were executed in a minimalist style on large canvas with the text isolated in the center with block Helvetica font, Two Jokes has the same isolated text but on a horizontally aligned canvas. Instead of a brightly colored monochromatic background Two Jokes’ background has a watercolor aesthetic made up of multiple layers of pastel washes. Compared to his monochromatic jokes, Two Jokes has a newsprint like quality and echoes text published in advertisements from magazines or newspapers, a more literal appropriation of Prince’s subject matter. Two Jokes is an exquisite example of Prince’s later Joke series when he transformed the monochromatic format and enlisted more painterly elements, all with the same deadpan wit.