Appropriation (art)

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This article is about an artistic practice. For the cultural practice, see Cultural
appropriation. For another cultural practice, see Reappropriation.

In art, appropriation is the use of pre-existing objects or images with

little or no transformation applied to them.[1] The use of appropriation
has played a significant role in the history of the arts (literary, visual,
musical and performing arts). In the visual arts, "to appropriate" means
to properly adopt, borrow, recycle or sample aspects (or the entire form)
of human-made visual culture. Notable in this respect are the
readymades of Marcel Duchamp.

Inherent in the understanding of appropriation is the concept that the

new work recontextualizes whatever it borrows to create the new work.
In most cases, the original "thing" remains accessible as the original,
without change.

Definition

Appropriation, similar to found object art is "as an artistic strategy, the

intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of preexisting images,
objects, and ideas".[2] It has also been defined as "the taking over, into a
work of art, of a real object or even an existing work of art."[3] The Tate
Gallery traces the practice back to Cubism and Dadaism, and continuing
into 1940s Surrealism and 1950s Pop art. It returned to prominence in
the 1980s with the Neo-conceptual art and Neo-Geo artists,[3] and is
now common practice amongst contemporary artists like Richard Prince,
Sherrie Levine, and Jeff Koons.[4]

History

Marcel Duchamp Fountain, 1917,

photograph by Alfred Stieglitz at
291 (art gallery) following the 1917
Society of Independent Artists
exhibit, with entry tag visible. The
backdrop is The Warriors by
Marsden Hartley.[5]

19th century

Many artists made references to works by previous artists or themes.

In 1856 Ingres painted the portrait of Madame Moitessier. The unusual

pose is known to have been inspired by the famous ancient Roman wall
painting Herakles Finding His Son Telephas. In doing so, the artist
created a link between his model and an Olympian goddess.[6]

Edouard Manet painted Olympia in 1865, inspired by Titian's Venus of

Urbino. His painting Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe was also inspired by the
work of the Old Masters; specifically, its composition is based on a detail
of Marcantonio Raimondi's The Judgement of Paris (1515).[7]

Gustave Courbet is believed to have seen the famous color woodcut The
Great Wave off Kanagawa by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai before
painting a series of the Atlantic Ocean during the summer of 1869.[8]

Vincent van Gogh can be named with the examples of the paintings he
did inspired by Jean Francois Millet, Delacroix, or the Japanese prints he
had in his collection.[9] In 1889, Van Gogh created 20 painted copies
inspired by Millet black-and-white prints. He enlarged the compositions
of the prints and then painted them in colour according to his own
imagination. Vincent wrote in his letters that he had set out to "translate
them into another language". He said that it was not simply copying: if a
performer "plays some Beethoven he'll add his personal interpretation to
it… it isn't a hard and fast rule that only the composer plays his own
compositions".[10] More examples can be found on Copies by Vincent
van Gogh.

Claude Monet, a collector of Japanese prints, created several works

inspired by these such as The Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867 inspired
by Fuji from the Platform of Sasayedo by Katsushika Hokusai ; The Water
Lily Pond series Under Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa, 1830-1831 by
Hokusai or La Japonaise, 1876 likely inspired by Kitagawa Tsukimaro
Geisha, a pair of hanging scroll paintings, 1820-1829.[11][12][13]

First half of the 20th century

In the early twentieth century Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque

appropriated objects from a non-art context into their work. In 1912,
Picasso pasted a piece of oil cloth onto the canvas.[14] Subsequent
compositions, such as Guitar, Newspaper, Glass and Bottle (1913) in
which Picasso used newspaper clippings to create forms, is early collage
that became categorized as part of synthetic cubism. The two artists
incorporated aspects of the "real world" into their canvases, opening up
discussion of signification and artistic representation.

Marcel Duchamp in 1915 introduced the concept of the readymade, in

which "industrially produced utilitarian objects...achieve the status of art
merely through the process of selection and presentation."[15] Duchamp
explored this notion as early as 1913 when he mounted a stool with a
bicycle wheel and again in 1915 when he purchased a snow shovel and
inscribed it "in advance of the broken arm, Marcel Duchamp."[16][17] In
1917, Duchamp organized the submission of a readymade into the
Society of Independent Artists exhibition under the pseudonym, R. Mutt.
[18]
Entitled Fountain, it consisted of a porcelain urinal that was propped
atop a pedestal and signed "R. Mutt 1917". The work posed a direct
challenge, starkly juxtaposing to traditional perceptions of fine art,
ownership, originality and plagiarism, and was subsequently rejected by
the exhibition committee.[19] The New York Dada magazine The Blind
Man defended Fountain, claiming "whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands
made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it.[20] He took
an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance
disappeared under the new title and point of view—and created a new
thought for that object."[19]

The Dada movement continued to play with the appropriation of

everyday objects and their combination in collage. Dada works featured
deliberate irrationality and the rejection of the prevailing standards of art.
Kurt Schwitters shows a similar sensibility in his "merz" works. He
constructed parts of these from found objects,[21] and they took the
form of large gesamtkunstwerk constructions that are now called
installations.

During his Nice Period (1908–1913), Henri Matisse painted several

paintings of odalisques, inspired by Delacroix Women of Algiers.[22][23]
[24]

The Surrealists, coming after the Dada movement, also incorporated the
use of 'found objects', such as Méret Oppenheim's Object (Luncheon in
Fur) (1936) or Salvador Dalí's Lobster Telephone (1936). These found
objects took on new meaning when combined with other unlikely and
unsettling objects.

1950–1960: Pop art and realism

In the 1950s, Robert Rauschenberg created what he called Combine

Paintings, combining ready-made objects, such as car tires or beds, with
painting, silk-screens, collage, and photography. Similarly, Jasper Johns
incorporated found object imagery into his work, such as in his White
Flag. In 1958 Bruce Conner produced the influential A Movie in which he
recombined existing film clips.

In the early 1960s The Fluxus art movement also utilized appropriation:
[25]
its members blended different artistic disciplines including visual art,
experimental music, and literature. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s
they staged Happening Events from found objects and produced
sculptural works featuring unconventional found objects and materials.
Also in the early 1960s artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol
appropriated images from commercial art and popular culture as well as
the techniques of these industries with for example Warhol's Green
Coca-Cola Bottles painting of Coca-Cola bottles.[26] Called Pop Artists,
they saw mass popular culture as the main vernacular in culture. These
artists fully engaged with the ephemera produced from this mass-
produced culture while distancing themselves from the evident work of
an artist's hand. Roy Lichtenstein became known for appropriating
pictures from comics books with paintings such as Masterpiece (1962)
or Drowning Girl (1963) and from famous artists such as Picasso or
Matisse.[27] Elaine Sturtevant (also known simply as Sturtevant), on the
other hand, created replicas of famous works by her contemporaries.
Artists she 'copycatted' included Warhol, Jasper Johns, Joseph Beuys,
Duchamp, James Rosenquist, Roy Lichtenstein, and more. While not
exclusively reproducing Pop Art, that was a significant focus of her
practice.[28] She replicated Andy Warhol's Flowers in 1965 at the
Bianchini Gallery in New York City, for example.[29]

In France in the 60s, a group of artists called the New Realists used
banal objects in their art, such as the sculptor Cesar[30] who
compressed cars to create monumental sculptures or the artist
Arman[31] who included everyday machine-made objects—ranging from
buttons and spoons to automobiles and boxes filled with trash. The
German artists Sigmar Polke and his friend Gerhard Richter, who defined
the term Capitalist Realism, offered an ironic critique of consumerism in
post-war Germany. They used pre-existing photographs and
transformed them into paintings. Polke's best-known works were his
collages of imagery from pop culture and advertising, like his
"Supermarkets" scenes of super heros shopping at a grocery store.[32]

1970–1980: The Picture Generation and Neo Pop

Richard Prince, Covering Hannah

(1987 Buick Grand National)

Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank

(1983) by Jeff Koons, Tate
Liverpool

Whilst appropriation in bygone eras utilised the likes of 'language',

contemporary appropriation has been symbolised by photography as a
means of 'semiotic models of representation'.[33] The Pictures
Generation was a group of artists, influenced by Conceptual and Pop art,
who utilized appropriation and montage to reveal the constructed nature
of images.[34] An exhibition named The Pictures Generation, 1974–
1984 was held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New
York City from April 29 – August 2, 2009 that included among other
artists John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince,
David Salle, Cindy Sherman.

Sherrie Levine, who addressed the act of appropriating itself as a theme

in art.[35] Levine often quotes entire works in her own work, for example
photographing photographs of Walker Evans. Challenging ideas of
originality, drawing attention to relations between power, gender and
creativity, consumerism and commodity value, the social sources and
uses of art, Levine plays with the theme of "almost same".

During the 1970s and 1980s Richard Prince re-photographed

advertisements such as for Marlboro cigarettes[36] or photo-journalism
shots. His work takes anonymous and ubiquitous cigarette billboard
advertising campaigns, elevates the status and focuses our gaze on the
images.

Appropriation artists comment on all aspects of culture and society.

Joseph Kosuth appropriated images to engage with epistemology and
metaphysics.

Other artists working with appropriation during this time with included
Greg Colson, and Malcolm Morley.[citation needed]

In the late 1970s Dara Birnbaum was working with appropriation to

produce feminist works of art.[37] In 1978-79 she produced one of the
first video appropriations. Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman
utilised video clips from the Wonder Woman television series.[38]

Richard Pettibone began replicating on a miniature scale works by newly

famous artists such as Andy Warhol, and later also modernist masters,
signing the original artist's name as well as his own.[39][32]

Jeff Koons gained recognition in the 1980 by creating conceptual

sculptures The New series, a series of vacuum-cleaners, often selected
for brand names that appealed to the artist like the iconic Hoover, and in
the vein of the readymades of Duchamp. Later he created sculptures in
stainless steel inspired by inflatable toys such as bunnies or dogs.[40][41]

1990s

Fountain (Buddha) a bronze

remake by Sherrie Levine, 1996

In the 1990s artists continued to produce appropriation art, using it as a

medium to address theories and social issues, rather than focussing on
the works themselves. This typically is the case of Peruvian painter
Herman Braun-Vega, in whom the appropriation of the works of the old
masters is almost systematic[42] and who, after beginning by making
painted commentaries of the painting of others in the late 1960s,[43]
ends up putting the characters borrowed from Western painting
iconography in the presence of the social and political reality of his time.
[44]
The great triptych from the permanent collection of the Ralli
Museum in Marbella, The Informal Family (Velazquez, Goya, Picasso),[45]
is an example of multiple appropriations coexisting within the same work
with the painter’s contemporaries in scenes describing the social
situation in third world countries where the family in the broad sense is a
circle of subsistence economy.[46] Braun-Vega recontextualises
appropriated works and gives them a new meaning.[47] For his part,
Damian Loeb used film and cinema to comment on themes of
simulacrum and reality. Other high-profile artists working at this time
included Christian Marclay, Deborah Kass, and Genco Gulan.[48]

Yasumasa Morimura is a Japanese appropriation artist who borrows

images from historical artists (such as Édouard Manet or Rembrandt) to
modern artists as Cindy Sherman, and inserts his own face and body
into them.[49]

Saulteaux First Nations artist Robert Houle gained prominence through

his appropriation of historical images and documents to criticize
historical violence against Indigenous peoples in Canada.[50] Houle's
work Kanata (1992) utilized imagery from Benjamin West's The Death of
General Wolfe (1770), forgoing color in most of the frame to instead
highlight the imagery of a Delaware warrior inserted by West.[50]

Sherrie Levine appropriated the appropriated when she made polished

cast bronze urinals named Fountain. They are considered to be an
"homage to Duchamp's renowned readymade. Adding to Duchamp's
audacious move, Levine turns his gesture back into an "art object" by
elevating its materiality and finish. As a feminist artist, Levine remakes
works specifically by male artists who commandeered patriarchal
dominance in art history."[51]

21st century

Appropriation is frequently used by contemporary artists who often

reinterpret previous artworks such as French artist Zevs who
reinterpreted logos of brands like Google or works by David Hockney.[52]
Many urban and street artists also use images from the popular culture
such as Shepard Fairey or Banksy,[53] who appropriated artworks by
Claude Monet or Vermeer with his girl with a pierced eardrum.[54]

Canadian Cree artist Kent Monkman appropriates iconic paintings from

European and North American art history and populates them with
Indigenous visions of resistance.[55]

In 2014 Richard Prince released a series of works titled New Portraits

appropriating the photos of anonymous and famous persons (such as
Pamela Anderson) who had posted a selfie on Instagram.The
modifications to the images by the artist are the comments Prince added
under the photos.[56][57]

Damien Hirst was accused in 2018 of appropriating the work of Emily

Kngwarreye and others from the painting community in Utopia, Northern
Territory with the Veil paintings, that according to Hirst were "inspired by
Pointillist techniques and Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters
such as Bonnard and Seurat".[58][59][60][61]

Mr. Brainwash[62] is an urban artist who became famous thanks to

Banksy and whose style fuses historic pop imagery and contemporary
cultural iconography to create his version of a pop–graffiti art hybrid first
popularized by other street artists.[63]

Brian Donnelly, known as Kaws, has used appropriation in his series, The
Kimpsons, and painted The Kaws Album inspired by the Simpsons Yellow
Album which itself was a parody of the cover art for the Beatles album
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band replaced with characters from
the Simpsons.[64] On April 1, 2019, at Sotheby's in Hong Kong, The Kaws
Album (2005), sold for 115.9 million Hong Kong dollars, or about $14.7
million U.S. dollars.[65] In addition, he has reworked other familiar
characters such as Mickey Mouse, the Michelin Man, the Smurfs,
Snoopy, and SpongeBob SquarePants.[66]

In the digital age

Appropriation art and copyright

Artists using appropriation

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

External links

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