Appropriation in Art
Homage=or Insult?
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup
Silkscreen
To appropriate something involves
taking possession of it!
E.g. Mass culture such as Comic style and famous ‘Mickey Mouse icon,
adopted in pop art!
The practice of “appropriation” has become quite familiar in
the art world over the past century. The practice can be tracked back to
the CUBIST Collages and constructions of Picasso and Georges Barque
made from 1912 on, in which real objects such as newspapers were
included to represent themselves. It was often used in the 80’s, where
artists cut-and-paste, some take images from other artists and alter or
use fractions of them in their own work, and some just borrow ideas from
other artists.
In the late 1950s, appropriated images and objects appear extensively in
the works of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, and in Pop Art,
where artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichenstein practises it for both
social commentary on culture…
Left to right:
Brillo Box
Warhol, 1964
Silkscreen ink on painted wood
17 1/8 x 17 1/8 x 14 in
Flag
Jasper Johns
1954–55. Encaustic, oil, and collage
on fabric mounted on plywood (three panels)
Fountain
Marcel Duchamp, 1917.
and criticism on: what really is a work of art?
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Julie Rrap
JULIE RRAP
Appropriation!
Julie Rrap has been a major figure in
Australian contemporary art for over twenty years.
Since the mid-1970s, she has worked with
photography, painting, sculpture, performance
and video in an on-going project concerned
with representations of the body.
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Julie Rrap
The viewer was
to interact with
the appropriated
artwork by
involving their
bodies- lying in
the negative
bronze casts,
they will be in a
similar position
as the main
subject, thus
becoming ‘one’
with the artwork.
Untitled (after Manet’s Olympia), 2002
Julie Rrap
Appropriation!
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Exhibited along-side
these sculptures are
life-sized, digitallymanipulated prints
on canvas of the
original paintings
from which the same
figures have been
removed. With these
works, Rrap invites
the viewer to enter
the scene, to place
themselves into
these famous
compositions…
using 3 different
mediums- digital,
sculptural and
performance.
Julie Rrap
‘Fleshed Out’- Untitled (after Manet’s
Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe’ ), 2002
Julie Rrap
Appropriation!
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Picasso
Appropriation!
Picasso’s distinctive style of cubism, re-interpreting the masterpiece
Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe’
Manet ,1863. Oil on
canvas, 208 x 264.5 cm
Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe’
Picasso, 1962, Oil on Canvas
Las Meninas 1656
Diego Velazquez
oil on canvas, 276 x 320 cm
Las Meninas
1957
Picasso
Oil on canvas
194 x 260 cm
2.0
Cindy Sherman
CINDY SHERMAN
Appropriation!
By turning the camera on herself,
Cindy Sherman has built a name as
one of the most respected photographers of the
late twentieth century.
Sherman uses herself as a vehicle for
commentary on a variety of issues of the modern
world: the role and representation of women in
society and the media.
Questions the role of the artist as well as the
nature of the creation of art.
2.0
Cindy Sherman
Appropriation!
Using prosthetic body parts to
augment her own body,
Sherman recreates great pieces
of art and thus manipulates her
role as a contemporary artist working
in the twentieth-century.
Untitled #195
Cindy Sherman
2.0
Untitled #228
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #216
Cindy Sherman
2.0
Cindy Sherman
“The idea that images
can be reproduced
and seen anytime,
anywhere, by anyone”
Young Sick Bacchus,
1593-1594, early selfUntitled
#224
portrait by
Michelangelo
Cindy
Merisi Sherman
da Caravaggio
Questions to Ponder :
• Who owns the image? How much of an
original idea does the artist really own?
• Does one artist have the right to say to
another, “You may not use my work as
inspiration for your own work?” With the
trend of appropriation catching on, many artists,
their practices, and the ideals of art have come
into question.
Homework for Section A:
Andy Warhol
Sherrie Levine
Banksy
Homework for Section B:
Case Study 1
LA Based Artist
Shepherd Fairey
Founder of Street Label- ‘Obey’
Artistic style often involves
creating graffiti art and imagery
composition of guerilla warfare +
political/ propaganda posters,
merged with popular culture,
celebrity icons and current global
events.
Fairey vs. AP
AP Countersues Over Use Of Obama Image By Artist Shepard Fairey
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Who do you think is right?
- Please Read attached article 1- Fairey vs AP now
Case Study 2
Art Rogers vs. Jeff Koons
(in essay entitled Subjective Reasoning by James Traub)1992
Left: Art Rogers, Puppies, 1985 © Art Rogers.
Right: Jeff Koons, String of Puppies, 1988
Who do you think is right?
- Please Read attached article 2- Koons vs Roger now
Questions to Ponder :
• How Original are Imitators?
• What would make an appropriation work
successful, instead of just imitation?