Norm Clasen: Titled (Cowboy) March 3, 2018

Norm Clasen: Titled (Cowboy) Opening Reception

M+B Photo
Saturday, March 3  / 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Show runs through April 21, 2018

The exhibition will feature images taken during the artist’s decades working as a freelance
commercial photographer for Marlboro.

Clasen's photographs helped shape a visual lexicon that is integral to the iconography of the
American West. To capture his iconic images of cowboys in their element, Clasen ate, drank, 
and rode with the men, earning their respect and trust. His authentic and natural point of view 
guided our cultural perspective of the ‘cowboy’ to its zenith, with his work appearing in 
newspapers, magazines, and billboards across the world.

Between 1980 and 1992, the contemporary artist Richard Prince appropriated Clasen’s 
and other’s images for his series Untitled (Cowboy), re-photographing the images directly 
from the ad campaign to sell as artworks of his own. He did so without credit or compensation 
to the original creators of the work. These re-photographs gained Prince both critical and 
financial success

This special exhibition offers the public the first chance to see these authentic images 
As envisioned by their original author. This is an opportunity to engage in dialogue 
And contemplation about appropriation, fair use, moral rights, and authorship in the 
art community.

A portion of the proceeds will be contributed to the APA, (American Photographic Artists), 
a not-for-profit trade organization, for the defense of copyright.

M+B Photo Exhibition Space 
1050 North Cahuenga Boulevard, Hollywood, CA.

Read the artilce about it in PDN

Read the article in Artsy

Norm Clasen

Norm Clasen, On the Edge, Cortez, CO, 1987