John Dogg

303 Gallery, New York

Private Collection, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner

303 Gallery: 35 Years, 303 inPrint, 2019

The enigmatic artist of this work, John Dogg, was a persona created as an artistic collaboration between Richard Prince and the New York gallerist Colin de Land in the late 1980s. Prince described his invented character as “a minimalist Neal Cassady [who] was once employed to deliver special cars to buyers by driving them across the country.” (Randy Kennedy, “The Duchamp of the Muscle Car,” The New York Times, 23 September 2007). Through his alter-ego character, Prince created works related to the American automobile culture, a theme that would also become predominant in his own future career. 

As seen in his work Ulysses (GGOD), Dogg’s artistic practice focused on elevating quintessentially mundane car parts into works of art. The wall-mounted tire in a circular steel case inscribed with his backward-spelled pseudonym engages both with Duchamp’s ready-made style and Pop Art culture. Nevertheless, Dogg’s works have a different goal, challenging and engaging with a particular idea of American culture, linked to questions of labor and the American Dream. The figure of Ulysses is depersonalized and now solely represented by a vehicle’s tire; an American stylized image. The creation of John Dogg and the art produced through him allowed Richard Prince to experiment with themes and ideas that made his work widely renowned.