“Originality is way overrated. To make, you need to take. All great artists do.” – Darby Bannard.
Art is built upon context. To make art, you need to contextualise your work. This is what art school teaches you. You must reference contemporary artists, take inspiration, take note, be a by-product of the contemporary art world.
But what if you just take?
I attended a lecture on ‘Appropriation’ in my second year at university. Here we learnt that appropriation and the art of ‘taking’ is a big part of the art world and has been for some time. From Andy Warhol and the Pop Art movement to Duchamp and his moustache-laced Mona Lisa, artists have been taking from other artists for centuries. One of the most notorious forms of appropriation is the aforementioned Mona Lisa, by Duchamp. He appropriated the image from da Vinci and altered the face, so that the feminine features were enhanced by a moustache. Duchamp was revolutionary in many of his concepts and is the proclaimed Grandfather of the contemporary art world; everything links back to Duchamp.
He made it acceptable to directly copy another person’s work – even someone as influential as da Vinci. If the guy who basically founded the contemporary art world gave the OK to start taking from other artists, then why shouldn’t we?
This paved the way for artists such as Andy Warhol, Hannah Hoch and Man Ray to continue making work using appropriation – to the point where it has become commonplace. Collage is another example of artists taking an image, or a series of images, from different people and collating them to form their own unique image. But, because the images are altered, because they are given a different name and put into a different context, we no longer look at that work in the same way.
There is a different artist claiming this work, and the viewers are looking at something so different that it must be separate from the original. Or is it? One thing about art, especially when discussing the idea of appropriation and stealing, is that there is no clear-cut answer. It is left open for the viewer to interpret.
But it does beg the question: can anything be original anymore? Have we reached a point where everything has been done and the only way for art to move forward is to take from other artists? Artists are currently using techniques, images and ideas that were thought of centuries before them. There is a sense that the art world, as a collective, is at a bit of a standstill; in an era where originality is dead, we, as artists, strive for the impossible.
However, a new era is filtering its way through contemporary art – that of hyper hyper-realism. The art of copying something so exact, that it’s almost like you’re looking at a photograph. But is it stealing? Artists are currently creating images with such a high amount of accuracy and detail that the mind is boggled when confronted with pieces such as Gottfried Helnwein’s massive installations.
If these new artists are creating these like-for-like copies of real people/photographs, isn’t that just plagiarism? Is the notion of taking something exactly and replicating it in a new medium stealing? Or could it be that the notion of creating art is something beyond the actual piece. By completely ignoring the effort, technical skill and intelligence it can take to create art, are we just simplifying it to a point where the same conclusion is reached: that art is just stealing from art?
The great thing about appropriation is the debate it opens among viewers, artists and art critics. It creates a conversation where there is no right answer. The image becomes altered, and because it has been altered it becomes a different art work. Laws around the subject are still blurry, but the numbers of artists using appropriated works and being successful in doing so are increasing. Artists are continuing to make work, regardless of what the critics, courts or other artists’ actions are. The tenacity of artists and the encouragement of talent is what will keep the art world thriving.
Originality may be dead, but art isn’t.
Words: Deanna Miles
Image: Katherine Butler