Appropriation art
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Appropriation in art is the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them. The use of appropriation has played a significant role in the
history of the arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
(
literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to includ ...
,
visual The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight ...
,
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
al and
performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfo ...
). In the
visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...
, to appropriate means to properly adopt, borrow, recycle or sample aspects (or the entire form) of human-made
visual culture Visual culture is the aspect of culture expressed in visual images. Many academic fields study this subject, including cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy, media studies, Deaf Studies, and anthropology. The field of vi ...
. Notable in this respect are the
Readymades of Marcel Duchamp The readymades of Marcel Duchamp are ordinary manufactured objects that the artist selected and modified, as an antidote to what he called "retinal art".Tomkins: ''Duchamp: A Biography'', page 158. By simply choosing the object (or objects) and r ...
. 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". 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." The
Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
traces the practice back to
Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
and
Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
, and continuing into 1940s
Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
and 1950s Pop art. It returned to prominence in the 1980s with the Neo-Geo artists, and is now common practice amongst
contemporary artists This is a list of artists who create contemporary art, i.e., those whose peak of activity can be situated somewhere between the 1970s (the advent of postmodernism) and the present day. Artists on this list meet the following criteria: *The person ...
like
Richard Prince Richard Prince (born 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and ...
,
Sherrie Levine Sherrie Levine (born 1947) is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of exact photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston. Early ...
, and
Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-Surface fi ...
.


History


19th century

Many artists made references to works by previous artists or themes. In 1856
Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the a ...
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. Edouard Manet painted the Olympia (1865) inspired by
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
'' Venus of Urbino''. His painting '' Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe'' was also inspired by the work of the Old Masters. Its composition is based on a detail of
Marcantonio Raimondi Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figu ...
's ''The Judgement of Paris'' (1515).
Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and ...
is believed to have seen the famous color woodcut ''
The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a woodblock print by Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist Hokusai, created in late 1831 during the Edo period of Japanese history. The print depicts three boats moving through a storm-tossed sea, with a large wave forming a spiral in the centre ...
'' by Japanese artist
Katsushika Hokusai , known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock print series '' Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the iconic print '' The Grea ...
before painting a series of the Atlantic Ocean during the summer of 1869.
Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
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. 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”. More examples can be found on
Copies by Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh made many copies of other people's work between 1887 and early 1890, which can be considered appropriation art. While at Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, where Van Gogh admitted himself, he strived to have s ...
.
Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
, 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 Kitagawa Tsukimaro (, ) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. He was one of the most successful students of Kitagawa Utamaro ( – 1806), from whom he took the ''-maro''. His early works bear the name "Kikumaro", first written (''kiku'' meaning ...
''Geisha, a pair of hanging scroll paintings,'' 1820-1829 .


First half of the 20th century

In the early twentieth century
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and
Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he play ...
appropriated objects from a non-art context into their work. In 1912, Picasso pasted a piece of oil cloth onto the canvas. Subsequent compositions, such as ''Guitar, Newspaper, Glass and Bottle'' (1913) in which Picasso used newspaper clippings to create forms, is early
collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an Assemblage (art), assemblage of different forms, thus creat ...
that became categorized as part of ''synthetic
cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
''. The two artists incorporated aspects of the "real world" into their canvases, opening up discussion of signification and artistic representation.
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
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." 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.” In 1917, Duchamp organized the submission of a readymade into the
Society of Independent Artists Society of Independent Artists was an association of American artists founded in 1916 and based in New York. Background Based on the French Société des Artistes Indépendants, the goal of the society was to hold annual exhibitions by avant-gard ...
exhibition under the pseudonym, R. Mutt. Entitled ''
Fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were ori ...
'', 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.Plant, S. (1992)
The most radical gesture: The Situationist International in a postmodern age
London and New York: Routledge, pp.44
The
New York Dada New York Dada was a regionalized extension of Dada, an artistic and cultural movement between the years 1913 and 1923. Usually considered to have been instigated by Marcel Duchamp's '' Fountain'' exhibited at the first exhibition of the Society o ...
magazine ''
The Blind Man ''The Blind Man'' was an art and Dada journal published briefly by the New York Dadaists in 1917. History Henri-Pierre Roché and Marcel Duchamp, visiting from France, organized the magazine with Beatrice Wood in New York City. Mina Loy also ...
'' defended ''Fountain'', claiming "whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. 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." The
Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...
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 Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, paint ...
shows a similar sensibility in his "merz" works. He constructed parts of these from found objects, and they took the form of large
gesamtkunstwerk A ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' (, literally 'total artwork', translated as 'total work of art', 'ideal work of art', 'universal artwork', 'synthesis of the arts', 'comprehensive artwork', or 'all-embracing art form') is a work of art that makes use of al ...
constructions that are now called installations. During his Nice Period (1908–1913),
Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prim ...
painted several paintings of odalisques, inspired by Delacroix ''
Women of Algiers ''Women of Algiers in their Apartment'' () is the title of two oil on canvas paintings by the French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix. Delacroix's first version of ''Women of Algiers'' was painted in Paris in 1834 and is located in the L ...
''. The Surrealists, coming after the Dada movement, also incorporated the use of ' found objects', such as
Méret Oppenheim Meret (or Méret) Elisabeth Oppenheim (6 October 1913 – 15 November 1985) was a German-born Swiss Surrealist artist and photographer. Early life Meret Oppenheim was born on 6 October 1913 in Berlin. She was named after Meretlein, a wild c ...
's ''Object (Luncheon in Fur)'' (1936) or Salvador Dalí's ''
Lobster Telephone ''Lobster Telephone'' (also known as ''Aphrodisiac Telephone'') is a Surrealist object, created by Salvador Dalí in 1936 for the English poet Edward James (1907–1984), a leading collector of surrealist art. In his 1942 book '' The Secret Li ...
'' (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 Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
used what he dubbed "combines", combining readymade objects such as tires or beds, painting, silk-screens, collage, and photography. Similarly,
Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...
, working at the same time as Rauschenberg, incorporated found objects into his work. In 1958 Bruce Conner produced the influential ''A Movie'' in which he recombined existing film clips. In 1958 Raphael Montanez Ortiz produced ''Cowboy and Indian Film'', a seminal appropriation film work. The
Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...
art movement also utilized appropriation: its members blended different artistic disciplines including visual art, music, and literature. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s they staged "action" events and produced sculptural works featuring unconventional materials. In the early 1960s artists such as
Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...
and
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
appropriated images from commercial art and popular culture as well as the techniques of these industries with for example Warhol painting Coca-Cola bottles. Called " pop artists", they saw mass popular culture as the main vernacular culture, shared by all irrespective of education. These artists fully engaged with the ephemera produced from this mass-produced culture, embracing expendability and distancing themselves from the evidence of an artist's hand. Among the most famous pop artists,
Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. ...
became known for appropriating pictures from comics books with paintings such as ''
Masterpiece A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
'' (1962) or ''
Drowning Girl ''Drowning Girl'' (also known as ''Secret Hearts'' or ''I Don't Care! I'd Rather Sink'') is a 1963 American painting in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas by Roy Lichtenstein, based on original art by Tony Abruzzo. The painting is conside ...
'' (1963) and from famous artists such as
Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
or
Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primar ...
.
Elaine Sturtevant Elaine Frances Sturtevant (née Horan; August 23, 1924 – May 7, 2014), also known professionally as Sturtevant, was an American artist. She achieved recognition for her carefully inexact repetitions of other artists' works. Early life and educ ...
(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 Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...
, Duchamp, James Rosenquist, Roy Lichtenstein, and more. While not exclusively reproducing Pop Art, that was a significant focus of her practice. She replicated Andy Warhol's ''Flowers'' in 1965 at the Bianchini Gallery in New York. She trained to reproduce the artist's own technique—to the extent that when Warhol was repeatedly questioned on his technique, he once answered "I don't know. Ask Elaine." In Europe, a group of artists called the New Realists used objects such as the sculptor Cesar who compressed cars to create monumental sculptures or the artist
Arman Arman (November 17, 1928 – October 22, 2005) was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman was a painter who moved from using objects for the ink or paint traces they leave (''cachets'', ''allures d'objet'') to ...
who included everyday machine-made objects—ranging from buttons and spoons to automobiles and boxes filled with trash. The German artists
Sigmar Polke Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s ...
and his friend
Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German ...
who defined “Capitalist Realism,” offered an ironic critique of consumerism in post-war Germany. They used pre existing photographs and transformed them. Polke's best-known works were his collages of imagery from pop culture and advertising, like his “Supermarkets” scene of super heroes shopping at a grocery store.


1970–1980: The Picture Generation and Neo Pop

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'. 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. An exhibition named The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984 was held at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
(The Met) in New York City from April 29 – August 2, 2009 that included among other artists
John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a painter ...
,
Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her collage style that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captio ...
,
Sherrie Levine Sherrie Levine (born 1947) is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of exact photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston. Early ...
,
Richard Prince Richard Prince (born 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and ...
,
David Salle David Salle (born September 28, 1952; last name pronounced "Sally") is a Pictures Generation American painter, printmaker, photographer, and stage designer. Salle was born in Norman, Oklahoma, and lives and works in East Hampton, New York. He ear ...
,
Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...
.
Sherrie Levine Sherrie Levine (born 1947) is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of exact photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston. Early ...
, who addressed the act of appropriating itself as a theme in art. Levine often quotes entire works in her own work, for example photographing photographs of
Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...
. Challenging ideas of originality, drawing attention to relations between
power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...
,
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...
and
creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed lit ...
,
consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...
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 Richard Prince (born 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and ...
re-photographed advertisements such as for Marlboro cigarettes 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 Joseph Kosuth (; born January 31, 1945), an American conceptual artist, lives in New York and London,
appropriated images to engage with
epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...
and
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
. Other artists working with appropriation during this time with included
Greg Colson Greg Colson (born April 23, 1956) is an American artist best known for works that straddle the line between painting and sculpture that address concepts of efficiency and order. Using scavenged materials, Colson allows the physicality of his ma ...
, and
Malcolm Morley Malcolm A. Morley (June 7, 1931 – June 1, 2018) was a British-American artist and painter. He was known as an artist who pioneered in varying styles, working as a photorealist and an expressionist, among many other styles. Life Morley was ...
. In the late 1970s Dara Birnbaum was working with appropriation to produce feminist works of art. In 1978-79 she produced one of the first video appropriations. '' Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman'' utilised video clips from the ''
Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byrne, are credited as bein ...
'' television series. 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.
Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-Surface fi ...
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 Hoover may refer to: Music * Hoover (band), an American post-hardcore band * Hooverphonic, a Belgian band originally named Hoover * Hoover (singer), Willis Hoover, a country and western performer active in 1960s and '70s * "Hoover" (song), a 2016 ...
, 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.


1990s

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.
Damian Loeb Damian Loeb (; born May 9, 1970) is an American artist best known for contemporary realist painting, though he has also exhibited digital collage and photographic prints. He has shown in New York at Mary Boone and Acquavella Galleries and intern ...
used film and cinema to comment on themes of
simulacrum A simulacrum ( plural: simulacra or simulacrums, from Latin '' simulacrum'', which means "likeness, semblance") is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. The word was first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, ...
and reality. Other high-profile artists working at this time included
Christian Marclay Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality. Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film. A pioneer of using gramophone records ...
,
Deborah Kass Deborah Kass (born 1952) is an American artist whose work explores the intersection of pop culture, art history, and the construction of self. Deborah Kass works in mixed media, and is most recognized for her paintings, prints, photography, sculp ...
, and
Genco Gulan Genco Gulan ( (born 1969 in Turkey) is a contemporary conceptual artist and theorist, who lives and works in Istanbul. His transmedia contextual work involves painting, found objects, new media, drawings, sculpture, photography, performance and ...
.
Yasumasa Morimura Yasumasa Morimura (森村 泰昌, Morimura Yasumasa, born June 11, 1951) is a contemporary Japanese performance and appropriation artist whose work encompasses photography, film, and live performance. He is known for his reinterpretation of r ...
is a Japanese appropriation artist who borrows images from historical artists (such as
Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bor ...
or
Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...
) to modern artists as
Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...
, and inserts his own face and body into them.
Sherrie Levine Sherrie Levine (born 1947) is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of exact photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston. Early ...
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."


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. Many urban and street artists also use images from the popular culture such as
Shepard Fairey Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campai ...
or
Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...
, who appropriated artworks by
Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
or
Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...
with his girl with a pierced eardrum. Canadian Cree artist
Kent Monkman Kent Monkman (born 13 November 1965) is a Canadian First Nations artist of Cree ancestry. He is a member of the Fisher River band situated in Manitoba's Interlake Region. He is both a visual as well as performance artist, working in a variety ...
appropriates iconic paintings from European and North American art history and populates them with Indigenous visions of resistance. In 2014
Richard Prince Richard Prince (born 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and ...
released a series of works titled ''New Portraits'' appropriating the photos of anonymous and famous persons (such as
Pamela Anderson Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American actress and model. She is best known for her glamour modeling work in ''Playboy'' magazine and for her appearances on the television series ''Baywatch'' (1992–1997). Ander ...
) who had posted a selfie on Instagram.The modifications to the images by the artist are the comments Prince added under the photos. Damien Hirst was accused in 2018 of appropriating the work of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, 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". Mr. Brainwash is an urban artist who became famous thanks to
Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...
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. Kaws, Brian Donnelly, known as Kaws, has used appropriation in his series, ''The Kimpsons,'' and painted ''The Kaws Album'' inspired by the The Yellow Album, Simpsons Yellow Album which itself was a parody of the cover art for the Beatles album ''List of images on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' replaced with characters from the Simpsons. 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. In addition, he has reworked other familiar characters such as Mickey Mouse, the Michelin Man, the Smurfs, Snoopy, and SpongeBob SquarePants.


In the digital age

Since the 1990s, the exploitation of historical precursors is as multifarious as the concept of appropriation is unclear. An unparalleled quantity of appropriations pervades not only the field of the visual arts, but of all cultural areas. The new generation of appropriators considers themselves "archeolog[es] of the present time". Some speak of "postproduction", which is based on pre-existing works, to re-edit "the screenplay of culture". The annexation of works made by others or of available cultural products mostly follows the concept of use. So-called "prosumers"—those consuming and producing at the same time—browse through the ubiquitous archive of the digital world (more seldom through the analog one), in order to sample the ever accessible images, words, and sounds via 'copy-paste' or 'drag-drop' to 'bootleg', 'mashup' or 'remix' them just as one likes. French curator Nicolas Bourriaud coined the neologism ''Semionaut'' – a portmanteau of semiotics and astronaut – to describe this. He writes: "DJs, Web surfers, and postproduction artists imply a similar configuration of knowledge, which is characterized by the invention of paths through culture. All three are "semionauts" who produce original pathways through signs." Appropriations have today become an everyday phenomenon. The new "generation remix"—who have taken the stages not only of the visual arts, but also of music, literature, dance and film—causes, of course, highly controversial debates. Media scholars Lawrence Lessig coined in the begin of the 2000s here the term of the remix culture. On the one hand are the celebrators who foresee a new age of innovative, useful, and entertaining ways for art of the digitized and globalized 21st century. The new appropriationists will not only realize Joseph Beuys' dictum that everyone is an artist but also "build free societies". By liberating art finally from traditional concepts such as aura, originality, and genius, they will lead to new terms of understanding and defining art. More critical observers see this as the starting point of a huge problem. If creation is based on nothing more than carefree processes of finding, copying, recombining and manipulating pre-existing media, concepts, forms, names, etc. of any source, the understanding of art will shift in their sight to a trivialized, low-demanding, and regressive activity. In view of the limitation of art to references to pre-existing concepts and forms, they foresee endless recompiled and repurposed products. Skeptics call this a culture of recycling with an addiction to the past Some say that only lazy people who have nothing to say let themselves be inspired by the past in this way. Others fear, that this new trend of appropriation is caused by nothing more than the wish of embellishing oneself with an attractive genealogy. The term appropriationism reflects the overproduction of reproductions, remakings, reenactments, recreations, revisionings, reconstructings, etc. by copying, imitating, repeating, quoting, plagiarizing, simulating, and adapting pre-existing names, concepts and forms. Appropriationism is discussed—in comparison of appropriation forms and concepts of the 20th century which offer new representations of established knowledge—as a kind of "racing standstill", referring to the acceleration of random, uncontrollable operations in highly mobilised, fluid Western societies that are governed more and more by abstract forms of control. Unlimited access to the digital archive of creations and easily feasible digital technologies, as well as the priority of fresh ideas and creative processes over a perfect masterpiece leads to a hyperactive hustle and bustle around the past instead of launching new expeditions into unexplored territory that could give visibility to the forgotten ghosts and ignored phantoms of our common myths and ideologies.


Appropriation art and copyright

Appropriation art has resulted in contentious copyright issues regarding its validity under copyright law. The U.S. has been particularly litigious in this respect. A number of case law examples have emerged that investigate the division between transformative works and derivative works.


What is fair use?

The Copyright Act of 1976 in the United States, provides a defense against copyright infringement when an artist can prove that their use of the underlying work is "fair". The Act gives four factors to be considered to determine whether a particular use is a fair use: # the purpose and character of the use (commercial or educational, transformative or reproductive, political); # the nature of the copyrighted work (fictional or factual, the degree of creativity); # the Fair use#Amount and substantiality, amount and substantiality of the portion of the original work used; and # the effect of the use upon the Market (economics), market (or potential market) for the original work.


Examples of lawsuits

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
faced a series of lawsuits from photographers whose work he appropriated and Screen-printing, silk-screened. Patricia Caulfield, one such photographer, had taken a picture of flowers for a photography demonstration for a photography magazine. Without her permission, Warhol covered the walls of Leo Castelli's New York gallery with his silk-screened reproductions of Caulfield's photograph in 1964. After seeing a poster of Warhol's unauthorized reproductions in a bookstore, Caulfield sued Warhol for violating her rights as the copyright owner, and Warhol made a cash settlement out of court. In 2021, the Second Circuit held that Warhol's use of a photograph of Prince (musician), Prince to create a series of 16 silkscreens and pencil illustrations was not fair use. The photograph, taken by celebrity photographer Lynn Goldsmith, was commissioned in 1981 as an artist reference for ''Newsweek'' magazine. In 1984, Warhol used the photograph as a source to create a work for ''Vanity Fair (magazine), Vanity Fair'' along with 15 additional pieces. Goldsmith was not made aware of the series until after the musician's death in 2016, when ''Condé Nast'' published a tribute featuring one of Warhol's works. In its opinion, the Court held that each of the Appropriation (art)#What is fair use?, four "fair use" factors favored Goldsmith, further finding that the works were substantially similar as a matter of law, given that “any reasonable viewer . . . would have no difficulty identifying the [Goldsmith photograph] as the source material for Warhol's Prince Series.” On the other hand, Warhol's famous ''Campbell's Soup Cans'' are generally held to be a non-infringing fair use of the soup maker's trademark, despite being clearly appropriated, because "the public [is] unlikely to see the painting as sponsored by the soup company or representing a competing product. Paintings and soup cans are not in themselves competing products," according to expert trademark lawyer Jerome Gilson.as quoted in Grant, Daniel, ''The Business of Being an Artist'' (New York: Allworth Press, 1996), p. 142
Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-Surface fi ...
has also confronted issues of copyright due to his appropriation work (see ''Rogers v. Koons''). Photographer Art Rogers brought suit against Koons for copyright infringement in 1989. Koons' work, ''String of Puppies'' sculpturally reproduced Rogers' black-and-white photograph that had appeared on an airport greeting card that Koons had bought. Though he claimed fair use and parody in his defense, Koons lost the case, partially due to the tremendous success he had as an artist and the manner in which he was portrayed in the media. The parody argument also failed, as the appeals court drew a distinction between creating a parody of modern society in general and a parody directed at a specific work, finding parody of a specific work, especially of a very obscure one, too weak to justify the fair use of the original. In October 2006, Koons successfully defended a different work by claiming "fair use". For a seven-painting commission for the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Koons drew on part of a photograph taken by Andrea Blanch titled ''Silk Sandals by Gucci'' and published in the August 2000 issue of ''Allure'' magazine to illustrate an article on metallic makeup. Koons took the image of the legs and diamond sandals from that photo (omitting other background details) and used it in his painting ''Niagara'', which also includes three other pairs of women's legs dangling surreally over a landscape of pies and cakes. In his decision, Judge Louis L. Stanton of U.S. District Court found that ''Niagara'' was indeed a "transformative use" of Blanch's photograph. "The painting's use does not 'supersede' or duplicate the objective of the original", the judge wrote, "but uses it as raw material in a novel way to create new information, new aesthetics and new insights. Such use, whether successful or not artistically, is transformative." The detail of Blanch's photograph used by Koons is only marginally copyrightable. Blanch has no rights to the Gucci sandals, "perhaps the most striking element of the photograph", the judge wrote. And without the sandals, only a representation of a woman's legs remains—and this was seen as "not sufficiently original to deserve much copyright protection." In 2000, Damien Hirst's sculpture ''Hymn'' (which Charles Saatchi had bought for a reported £1m) was exhibited in ''Ant Noises'' in the Saatchi Gallery. Hirst was sued for breach of copyright over this sculpture. The subject was a 'Young Scientist Anatomy Set' belonging to his son Connor, 10,000 of which are sold a year by Hull (Emms) Toy Manufacturer. Hirst created a 20-foot, six-ton enlargement of the Science Set figure, radically changing the perception of the object. Hirst paid an undisclosed sum to two charities, Children Nationwide and the Toy Trust in an out-of-court settlement. The charitable donation was less than Emms had hoped for. Hirst sold three more copies of his sculpture for similar amounts to the first. Appropriating a familiar object to make an artwork can prevent the artist claiming copyright ownership.
Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-Surface fi ...
threatened to sue a gallery under copyright, claiming that the gallery infringed his proprietary rights by selling bookends in the shape of balloon dogs. Koons abandoned that claim after the gallery filed a complaint for declaratory relief stating, "As virtually any clown can attest, no one owns the idea of making a balloon dog, and the shape created by twisting a balloon into a dog-like form is part of the public domain." In 2008, photojournalist Patrick Cariou sued artist
Richard Prince Richard Prince (born 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and ...
, Gagosian Gallery and RCS MediaGroup, Rizzoli books for copyright infringement. Prince had appropriated 40 of Cariou's photos of Rastafari from a book, creating a series of paintings known as ''Canal Zone''. Prince variously altered the photos, painting objects, oversized hands, naked women and male torsos over the photographs, subsequently selling over $10 million worth of the works. In March 2011, a judge ruled in favor of Cariou, but Prince and Gargosian appealed on a number of points. Three judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the right to an appeal. Prince's attorney argued that "Appropriation art is a well-recognized modern and postmodern art form that has challenged the way people think about art, challenged the way people think about objects, images, sounds, culture" On April 24, 2013, the appeals court largely overturned the original decision, deciding that many of the paintings had sufficiently transformed the original images and were therefore a permitted use. ''See Cariou v. Prince.'' In November 2010, Chuck Close threatened legal action against computer artist Scott Blake for creating a photoshop filter that built images out of dissected Chuck Close paintings. The story was first reported by online arts magazine ''Hyperallergic'', it was reprinted on the front page of Salon.com, and spread rapidly through the web. Kembrew McLeod, author of several books on sampling and appropriation, said in ''Wired (magazine), Wired'' that Scott Blake's art should fall under the doctrine of fair use. In September 2014, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit questioned the Second Circuit's interpretation of the fair use doctrine in the ''Cariou'' case. Of particular note, the Seventh Circuit noted that "transformative use" is not one of the four enumerated fair use factors but is, rather, simply part of the first fair use factor which looks to the "purpose and character" of the use. The Seventh Circuit's critique lends credence to the argument that there is a split among U.S. courts as to what role "transformativeness" is to play in any fair use inquiry. In 2013, Andrew Gilden and Timothy Greene published a law review article in The ''University of Chicago Law Review'' dissecting the factual similarities and legal differences between the ''Cariou'' case and the
Salinger v. Colting
' case, articulating concerns that judges may be creating a fair use "privilege largely reserved for the rich and famous."


Artists using appropriation

The following are WP:ARTIST, notable artists known for their use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them: *Above (artist), ABOVE *Ai Kijima *Aleksandra Mir *
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
*
Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...
*
Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her collage style that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captio ...
*Benjamin Edwards (artist), Benjamin Edwards *Bern Porter *Bill Jones (artist), Bill Jones *Brian Dettmer *Burhan Dogancay *
Christian Marclay Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality. Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film. A pioneer of using gramophone records ...
*
Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...
*
Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...
*Cornelia Sollfrank *Cory Arcangel *Craig Baldwin *
Damian Loeb Damian Loeb (; born May 9, 1970) is an American artist best known for contemporary realist painting, though he has also exhibited digital collage and photographic prints. He has shown in New York at Mary Boone and Acquavella Galleries and intern ...
*Damien Hirst *
David Salle David Salle (born September 28, 1952; last name pronounced "Sally") is a Pictures Generation American painter, printmaker, photographer, and stage designer. Salle was born in Norman, Oklahoma, and lives and works in East Hampton, New York. He ear ...
*
Deborah Kass Deborah Kass (born 1952) is an American artist whose work explores the intersection of pop culture, art history, and the construction of self. Deborah Kass works in mixed media, and is most recognized for her paintings, prints, photography, sculp ...
*Dominique Mulhem *Dorothy Cross *Douglas Gordon *
Elaine Sturtevant Elaine Frances Sturtevant (née Horan; August 23, 1924 – May 7, 2014), also known professionally as Sturtevant, was an American artist. She achieved recognition for her carefully inexact repetitions of other artists' works. Early life and educ ...
*Eric Doeringer *Fatimah Tuggar *Felipe Jesus Consalvos *
Genco Gulan Genco Gulan ( (born 1969 in Turkey) is a contemporary conceptual artist and theorist, who lives and works in Istanbul. His transmedia contextual work involves painting, found objects, new media, drawings, sculpture, photography, performance and ...
*General Idea *George Pusenkoff *
Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he play ...
*
Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German ...
*Ghada Amer *Glenn Brown (artist), Glenn Brown *Gordon Bennett (artist), Gordon Bennett *Graham Rawle *Graig Kreindler *
Greg Colson Greg Colson (born April 23, 1956) is an American artist best known for works that straddle the line between painting and sculpture that address concepts of efficiency and order. Using scavenged materials, Colson allows the physicality of his ma ...
*Hank Willis Thomas *Hans Haacke *Hans-Peter Feldman *J. Tobias Anderson *Jake and Dinos Chapman *James Cauty *
Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...
*
Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-Surface fi ...
*Jim Ricks *Joan Miró *Jodi (art collective), Jodi *
John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a painter ...
*John McHale (artist), John McHale *John Stezaker *Joseph Cornell *
Joseph Kosuth Joseph Kosuth (; born January 31, 1945), an American conceptual artist, lives in New York and London,
*Joy Garnett *Kaws *Karen Kilimnik *Kelley Walker *Kenneth Goldsmith *
Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, paint ...
*Lennie Lee *Leon Golub *Louise Lawler *Luc Tuymans *Luke Sullivan *
Malcolm Morley Malcolm A. Morley (June 7, 1931 – June 1, 2018) was a British-American artist and painter. He was known as an artist who pioneered in varying styles, working as a photorealist and an expressionist, among many other styles. Life Morley was ...
*
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
*Marcus Harvey *Mark Divo *Marlene Dumas *Martin Arnold (filmmaker), Martin Arnold *Matthieu Laurette *Max Ernst *Meret Oppenheim *Kung Faux, Mic Neumann *Michael Landy *Michel Platnic *Mike Bidlo *Mike Kelley (artist), Mike Kelley *Miltos Manetas *Mohammad Rakibul Hasan *Nancy Spero *Negativland *Nikki S. Lee *Norm Magnusson *PJ Crook *
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
*
Sigmar Polke Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s ...
*People Like Us (musician), People Like Us *Peter Saville (artist), Peter Saville *Philip Taaffe *Pierre Bismuth *Pierre Huyghe *Reginald Case *
Richard Prince Richard Prince (born 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and ...
*Rick Prelinger *Rob Scholte *Robert Longo *
Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
*
Shepard Fairey Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campai ...
*
Sherrie Levine Sherrie Levine (born 1947) is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of exact photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston. Early ...
*Stephanie Syjuco *System D-128 *Ted Noten *Thomas Ruff *Tom Phillips (artist), Tom Phillips *:de:Vermibus, Vermibus *Vik Muniz *Vikky Alexander *Vivienne Westwood *
Yasumasa Morimura Yasumasa Morimura (森村 泰昌, Morimura Yasumasa, born June 11, 1951) is a contemporary Japanese performance and appropriation artist whose work encompasses photography, film, and live performance. He is known for his reinterpretation of r ...


See also

*Art intervention *Assemblage (composition), Assemblage *Classificatory disputes about art *Collage *Conceptual art *
Copies by Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh made many copies of other people's work between 1887 and early 1890, which can be considered appropriation art. While at Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, where Van Gogh admitted himself, he strived to have s ...
*Cultural appropriation *Decollage *Fair use *Found object *Postmodern art *Scratch video


References


Sources

* David Evans, ''Appropriation: Documents of Contemporary Art'', Cambridge: MIT Press 2009


Further reading

* Margot Lovejoy, ''Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age'' Routledge 2004. * (es) Juan Martín Prada (2001) ''La Apropiación Posmoderna: Arte, Práctica apropiacionista y Teoría de la Posmodernidad''. Fundamentos. . * Brandon Taylor, ''Collage'', Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2006, p. 221.


External links


Michalis Pichler: ''Statements on Appropriation''Appropriation Art Coalition-Canada''Blanche v. Koons'' Decision (August 2005)
1/2006


Creative CommonsFree Culture
an international student movement
The New York Institute for the Humanities Comedies of Fair U$e conference (Archive.org)
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040725074848/http://www.benedict.com/Info/law/publicDomain/publicDomain.aspx Public Domain]
Sherri Levine InterviewLichtensteinWarholtransordinator/edition
Remixing conceptual artworks
Temporary appropriation
or in Wikipedia Temporary appropriation. {{DEFAULTSORT:Appropriation (Art) Aesthetics Artistic techniques Concepts in aesthetics Contemporary art Dada Mashup, . Modern art Repurposing Reuse