A Contemporary Function of Art Is Addressing Its Own Validity
Appropriation refers to the act of borrowing or reusing existing elements inside a new work. Post-modern appropriation artists, including Barbara Kruger, are swell to deny the notion of 'originality'.2 They believe that in borrowing existing imagery or elements of imagery, they are re-contextualising or appropriating the original imagery, allowing the viewer to renegotiate the meaning of the original in a unlike, more relevant, or more current context.
"I'thousand interested in coupling the ingratiation of wishful thinking with the criticality of knowing better. To use the device to go people to look at the picture, so to displace the conventional meaning that an image ordinarily carries with perhaps a number of different readings."
Barbara Kruger, 1987.1
In separating images from the original context of their own media, nosotros permit them to take on new and varied meanings. The process and nature of cribbing has considered past anthropologists equally part of the study of cultural change and cross-cultural contact.iii
Images and elements of culture that have been appropriated commonly involve famous and recognisable works of art, well known literature, and easily attainable images from the media.
The first creative person to successfully demonstrate forms of appropriation within his or her work is widely considered to be Marcel Duchamp. He devised the concept of the 'readymade', which essentially involved an item being chosen past the artist, signed past the artist and repositioned into a gallery context.
By asking the viewer to consider the object as art, Duchamp was appropriating it. For Duchamp, the piece of work of the creative person was in selecting the object. Whilst the beginnings of cribbing tin can be located to the starting time of the 20th century through the innovations of Duchamp, it is oftentimes said that if the art of the 1980's could be epitomised by any one technique or do, it would be cribbing.4
This essay focuses on contemporary examples of this type of piece of work.
Left: Robert Colesscott, Les Demoiselles d'Alabama, 19855; Right: Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 19076
Above nosotros see a contemporary case of appropriation, a painting which borrows its narrative and composition from the infamous Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso. Here Colesscott has developed Picasso'due south abstraction and 'Africanism' in line with European influences. Colescott has made this famous prototype his own, in terms of colour and content, whilst still making his inspiration articulate. The historical reference to Picasso is there, but this is undeniably the artist'southward own work. Other types of cribbing often exercise not accept such clear differences between the original and the newly appropriated piece.
The concepts of originality and of authorship are central to the fence of appropriation in contemporary art. We shall discuss these in depth in order to contextualise the works nosotros will investigate subsequently in this essay. To properly examine the concept it is also necessary to consider the work of the artists associated with appropriation with regards to their motivations, reasoning, and the upshot of their work.
The term 'author' refers to ane who originates or gives existence to a piece of piece of work. Authorship and so, determines a responsibility for what is created past that author. The practice of cribbing is often idea to support the point of view that authorship in art is an outmoded or misguided concept.seven Mayhap the almost famous supporter of this notion was Roland Barthes. His 1966 piece of work 'The Death of the Author' argued that we should not look to the creator of a literary or artistic piece of work when attempting to interpret the meaning inherent within. "The explanation of a work is always sought in the homo or woman who created it… (just) information technology is language which speaks; not the writer."viii With appropriated works, the viewer is less likely to consider the role of the writer or creative person in constructing interpretations and opinions of the work if they are aware of the work from which it was appropriated. Questions are more likely to concern the validity of the work in a more than current context, and the bug raised by the resurrection and re-contextualising of the original. Barthes finishes his essay by affirming, "The birth of the reader must be at the price of the death of the author."9 , Suggesting that i can and should simply translate a piece of work on information technology'due south own terms and merit, not that of the person who created it. In contrast to the view supported by the much-cited words of Roland Barthes, is the view that cribbing tin can in fact strengthen and reaffirm the concept of authorship within fine art. In her 2005 essay Appropriation and Authorship in Contemporary Art, Sherri Irvin argues:
"Appropriation artists, by revealing that no attribute of the objectives an artists pursues are in fact built in to the concept of art, demonstrate artists' responsibility for all aspects of their objectives and hence, of their products. This responsibility is constitutive of authorship and accounts for the interpretability of artworks."10
Authorship then, is a concept nosotros almost consider when discussing appropriated works. The evidence presented suggests that the notion of authorship is still very much present within cribbing in contemporary fine art. However, the weight of Barthes statement is such that we must take it into account. Mayhap a diminished responsibility or authorship is something nosotros can consider in this context.
Perchance the virtually key theme in the discourse on appropriation is the result of originality. The primary question nosotros must address is – what is originality? It is a quality that tin refer to the circumstances of creation – i.e. something that is un-plagiarised and the invention of the artist or author? Nosotros tin can arroyo originality in two ways: as a property of the piece of work of art itself, or alternatively equally a property of the artist.xi As we take said, many appropriation artists are keen to deny the notion of originality. In a paper addressing the notion of originality within appropriated art, Julie Van Army camp states:
"Nosotros value originality because it demonstrates the ability of the creative person to advance the potential of an art class." 12
This statement is problematic, as it is almost dismissive of the power of an creative person who chooses appropriation as their form of representation. Permit the states look to the example of Sherrie Levine, maybe the virtually well-known and cited appropriation artist. Levine worked kickoff with collage, simply is most known for her work with re-photography – taking photographs of well known photographic images from books and catalogues, which she so presents equally her own work. In 1979 she photographed work past lensman Walker Evans from 1936. Her work did not attempt to edit or dispense any of these images, but simply capture them.
Left: Sherrie Levine, After Walker Evans, 1981; Right: Walker Evans, Alabama Tenant Farmer's Wife, 1936thirteen
By bringing this work back into the conscious of the fine art globe, she was advancing the art form that is photography past using it to increment our awareness of already existing imagery. On a basic level, nosotros tend to equate originality with aesthetic newness. Why should a new concept – the concept of appropriation and the utilising of existing imagery – exist deemed unoriginal? Sherrie Levine was interested in the idea of "multiple images and mechanical reproduction". She said of her work "it was never an event of morality; it was always an issue of utility."14 This statement is easily practical to the works of other appropriation artists, likewise as Levine's.
Barbara Kruger'south piece of work utilised media imagery in an attempt to interpret consumer guild. Her background was in media and ad, having worked as a graphic designer, and picture editor for Condé Nast. Her work "combines compelling images… with pungently confrontational assertations to expose stereotypes beneath."fifteen Her almost famous work typically combines blackness and white photography, overlaid with text in a red and white typeface. Statements within her work such as "We don't need another hero", "Who knows that depression lurks when power is most?" and "Fund healthcare not warfare" accept naturally led viewers to consider her fine art equally politically themed. Kruger however, finds the political label often fastened to her work problematic.
In a 1988 interview she insists, "I work with pictures and words because they take the ability to determine who we are, what we want to exist and who nosotros get."16 Whilst there may or may not be political elements to Kruger'due south work, the undeniable underlying theme prominent throughout all of her works is the issue of our consumer society.
By using images available for public consumption in a limerick with a idea provoking argument, Kruger is request the states to rethink the images that we eat on a daily basis in terms of perception and how underlying messages function within this imagery. Kruger'southward utilize of "less abstract subjects than Duchamp's"17 may well increase the accessibility of her work, making it familiar and thus available to a wider audition.
Untitled (We Don't Need Some other Hero), Barbara Kruger, 1987eighteen
Barbara Kruger is withal creating art today, and the most current example of her work is seen in the November 2010 upshot of W Mag: The Fine art Issue featuring reality TV star Kim Kardashian on the cover. It features a naked Kardashian with Kruger's famous ruddy and white block text covering her modesty. The text reads 'Information technology's all about me/I mean you lot/I mean me". Combining the words of Kruger and the image of currently world famous Kardashian is a form of appropriation in itself. W Magazine is appropriating the star into an art context, by simply featuring her on the cover of their art result. This could exist an attempt to consider some other area of our consumer civilisation, which the cover star makes her living from – reality Television receiver – as an art grade. Here Westward Magazine has appropriated the image of Kardashian, and is therefore asking united states to consider the 'art' of reality TV.
W Magazine, The Art Issue, November 201019
The idea of using appropriation to address the consumption of imagery is something that was addressed in the pivotal 1977 exhibition Pictures. In the exhibition catalogue, curator Douglas Crimp noted to growing extent to which our 24-hour interval-to-day feel is governed by images from the media. He said: "Next to these pictures our firsthand experience begins to retreat, to seem more and more than footling…It therefore becomes imperative to understand the picture show itself."20 Crimp's exhibition at the New York Artist's Space used the work of artists including Sherrie Levine, Troy Bauntuch and Robert Longo to display appropriation equally a new mode of representation. The exhibition has a considerable touch on on the art world – it launched a new art based on the (commonly unauthorised) possession of the images and artefacts of others.21
Richard Prince is an appropriation artist who is commonly idea to have featured in the pivotal Pictures exhibition, despite having no connections with it whatever. His work all the same, addresses the aforementioned issues tackled past the artists in Crimp's exhibition. Much of his piece of work focused on the re-photography of caption less advertisements for loftier end products such every bit perfume, mode and watches. Interested in article and consumption, "Prince was treated equally a social communicator whose aim was to critique commodification."22
Left: Jim Krantz; Right: Richard Prince23
Here Prince has re-photographed and re-proportioned an image from an advertisement for Marlboro cigarettes. Much like the work of Sherrie Levine, there is very piffling that the artist Richard Prince has done to alter the original work. The questions of originality and authorship continually surround Prince and his work. When asked to comment about his 'borrowings' for an commodity in the New York Times, he declined to comment, stating merely: "I never associated advertisements with having an author."24
The soapbox and attention surrounding the concept of appropriation is so extensive that we must consider information technology an art form. One of Richard Prince's Marlboro cribbing photographs sold at Christies for $1.2 million in 2005, setting a new record for cribbing art.25 Art of all genres has something that makes us remember, or evokes a feeling – any feeling, in it's viewer. Whilst some may consider appropriation as copying or forgery, it is clear that the controversial art form has at present gained recognition worthy of a contemporary fine art exercise.
After Sherrie Levine by Jeanne Siegel. (2001.) Available at: www.artnotart.com/sherrielevine/arts.Su.85.html (Accessed 4th Feburary 2011).
'Artisan of History'. (2009). Bachelor at: http://artisanhistory.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html Accessed 20th February 2011.
Barthes, R. (1967). 'The Death of the Author' in Stygall, Grand (2002). Bookish Soapbox: Readings for Argument and Analysis, Taylor and Francis: London.
Dunleavy, D. (2007). 'The irony of art in a culture of appropriation'. Available at: http://ddunleavy.typepad.com/the_big_picture/2007/12/the-irony-of-ar.html Accessed 20th February 2011
Evans, D. (2009). Appropriation. Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press: London/Massachusetts.
Irvin, Due south. (2005). 'Cribbing and Authorship in Contemporary Fine art'. British Periodical of Aesthetics, Vol 45, No. 2.
Kruger, B. (1999). Thinking of You lot. MIT Press: Massachusetts.
'Mary Boone Gallery' (2011) Available at: http://www.maryboonegallery.com/artist_info/pages/kruger/detail2.html Accessed 20th February 2011
Sandler, I. (1996). Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Tardily 1960's to the Early 1990's. Westview Press: Colorado.
Siegel, J. (1988). Art Talk: the Early eighty'due south. Di Capo Printing: Michigan
Kennedy, R. (2007). 'If the Re-create Is an Artwork, Then What's the Original?'. The New York Times [Online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/arts/design/06prin.html?_r=ane&ex=1197867600&en=ce95b8dd14df4dd8&ei=5070&emc=eta1 Accessed 28th February 2011
W Magazine. (2010). Available at: http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2010/xi/kim_kardashian_queen_of_reality_tv_ss#slide=10 Accessed 22nd February 2011.
i.) Stiles, K (1996) Theories and documents of gimmicky art: a sourcebook of artists' writings University of California Printing: CA. p. 377
2.) Van Military camp, J (2007) 'Originality in Postmodern Appropriation Art' The Journal of Arts Direction, Law, and Society, 36: four p.247
3.) Schneider, A (2007) Appropriation as Do. Art and Identity in Argentine republic, Palgrave Macmillan pp.24-five
iv.) Sandler, I (1996) Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960's to the Early 1990'due south Westview Press: Colorado p. 321
v.) Epitome from ArtNet: Bachelor at: http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/news/walrobinson/walrobinson9-1-2.asp Accessed 28th Febuary 2011
6.) Moma Drove Online: Available at: http://world wide web.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79766
7.) Irvin, S (2005) 'Appropriation and Authorship in Contemporary Art' British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol 45, No. two, p. 123
8.) Barthes, R (1967) 'The Death of the Author' in Stygall, One thousand (2002) Academic Soapbox: Readings for Argument and Analysis, Taylor and Francis: London p. 102
ix.) Ibid p.106
10.) Irvin, Due south (2005) p.123
11.) Van Camp (2007) p.248
12.) Ibid. p.250
13.) http://artisanhistory.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html
14.) After Sherrie Levine by Jeanne Siegel (2001) Available at: world wide web.artnotart.com/sherrielevine/arts.Su.85.html (Accessed 4th Feburary 2011)
15.) Siegel, J (1988) Art Talk: the Early 80's Di Capo Press: Michigan p. 299
16.) Ibid, p. 303.
17.) Kruger, B (1999) Thinking of You lot MIT Printing: Massachusetts p. 9.
eighteen.) http://world wide web.maryboonegallery.com/artist_info/pages/kruger/detail2.html
19.) http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2010/11/kim_kardashian_queen_of_reality_tv_ss#slide=ten
20.) Sandler, I (1996) p.319.
21.) Evans, D. (Eds.) (2009) Appropriation Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press: London/Massachusetts p. 12
22.) Sandler, I (1996) p. 326.
23.) http://ddunleavy.typepad.com/the_big_picture/2007/12/the-irony-of-ar.html
24.) Kennedy, R (2007) 'If the Copy Is an Artwork, So What's the Original?' The New York Times [Online] Bachelor at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/arts/design/06prin.html?_r=one&ex=1197867600&en=ce95b8dd14df4dd8&ei=5070&emc=eta1 Accessed 28th Febuary 2010.
25.) Ibid.
Source: http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1661/appropriation-in-contemporary-art