OK – this is the last time I will write about Richard Prince. Well, maybe.

My first blog entry, and the focus of my essay for this class was on Richard Prince’s Nurse Paintings, one of the few works of art that I could identify as ‘appropriation’ before this class began. While I was looking for resources to write my essay, I came across a YouTube clip that seemingly had nothing to do with what I was looking for, but was tagged with ‘Richard Prince’ and ‘Nurse paintings’. The clip comes from the Summer 2008 Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton fashion show.

The clip can be seen here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcOMsz8f3og

Prince collaborated with Jacobs to present a new collection of handbags. Jacobs dressed the models in white nurse uniforms and hats, with semi-translucent surgical masks covering their mouths, a direct reference to Prince’s paintings. Prince also inspired the bags these models were carrying. Jacobs printed some of Prince’s ‘Joke Paintings’ on the outside of the Louis Vuitton bags.

While this cannot be considered ‘true’ appropriation (Prince would undoubtedly have collaborated with Jacobs, and given his permission for his work to be used), it is a second appropriation of Prince’s original appropriation of the covers of pulp fiction novels. I think that this multi-level appropriation adds even more meaning to the work. In his paintings, he transformed highly sexualized nurses into supposedly non-sexual figures covered in filth and dirt. Jacobs takes these nurses and cleans them up, dressing them up in crisp white. The nurses were now portrayed by supermodels, another huge step away from what they originally were.

– Matt