American Prince

Spiritual America sounds like the name of a patriot ballad or hymn, but it's not. It's the title of Richard Prince's retrospective at the Guggenheim, and if the America he shows us is spiritual, then God help us all. That, of course, seems to be the point — that America is a country of dubious values and predilections, with bad jokes and fame seekers and people who worship muscle cars.

But it's equally funny as sad. You laugh at the same time you realize what you're seeing are not our country's finest moments. Prince's "girlfriend" series appropriates amateur photographs of women variously draped over motorcycles, sent into biker mags by their husbands and boyfriends. So amateur that you have to give a little smirk and chuckle. But what they do — and as curator Nat Trotman will tell you on the audio guide, which is good — is highlight a culture of people desperate to be recognized, famous. Not that this isn't obvious to anyone who's watched The Hills or read about Britney befriending the paparazzi, but Prince does it artfully.