Of all the art forms to have emerged in the twentieth century, perhaps the most controversial is that of "appropriation art." Defined in a Wikipedia article as "the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them," the practice traces its origins to Marcel Duchamp who famously submitted a urinal, which he entitled Fountain, for entry in the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibit as the work of one R. Mutt. Defending his entry after its rejection, Duchamp wrote that:
"...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."
This, of course, provides that rationale for all the appropriation art that has followed. It should be noted, though, that the found objects (e.g., bicycle wheel, snow shovel, bottle rack), termed "readymades," appropriated by Duchamp were all industrial or commercial products. Their one shared characteristic, in fact, was that none of them had initially been seen as a work of art precisely because its original function had been purely utilitarian.
It is only when the appropriated objects and images are themselves considered, at least by their authors, to be works of art that problems ensue. It is then that questions of plagiarism and/or copyright infringement are invariably raised. In recent years, a number of lawsuits, most notably Rogers v. Koons and Cariou v. Prince, have been litigated in U.S. courts. At issue in many of these cases is whether or not the use to which the appropriated material has been put has been "transformative" in the sense that it has led to the creation of an entirely new and unique artwork.
The above by way of introduction to the current exhibit at the Edwynn Houk Gallery entitled Altered: Appropriation & Photography. The small show consists of the work of four artists - Robert Heinecken, Vik Muniz (whose work is also currently on display at Houk's Zurich location), Sebastiaan Bremer and Lalla Essaydi.
Of the four artists shown, I found the works of Lalla Essaydi to be the least interesting, perhaps because they so obviously followed a politically correct agenda. Here is an artist who has read Said's Orientalism and taken it to heart. Using well known nineteenth century paintings by such artists as Sargent and Ingres as a starting point, Essaydi has attempted to reimagine them as large format color photographs. But to what point? The recreations are not very skillfully done and tell the reader nothing that is not contained in the far better executed originals. Moreover, Essaydi's extensive use of henna calligraphy seems really only a form a graffiti placed on the surface of the image rather than an integral part of its content. It adds nothing to the photos and, since its purpose is never made clear, ends up becoming only a distraction to their understanding.
Like Essaydi, Vik Muniz also uses nineteenth century artwork, in this case Cézanne and Courbet, as the basis of two of his works. The vivid pigment coloring of his Montagne Sainte Victoire lends a fascinating and highly tactile sense of texture to that work. The monochromatic Origin of the World has a gritty sense of realism but is nowhere near as shocking as the original. Moving away from the work of those classic artists, both Prometheus after Titian and Princess Diana are playful and clever pieces, but neither rises to the level of great art. The latter work, with its faux puzzle piece surface texture, is actually highly imitative of Warhol's style.
It is ironic that the works of the late Robert Heinecken, who termed himself a "para-photographer" because he so rarely used a camera, are the most "photographic" in the show. Both his Recto/Verso and Vary Cliche/Autoeroticism are highly sophisticated and accomplished collages. The former especially, by showing both sides of the magazine pages from which it was taken, creates a serendipitous juxtaposition of imagery that gives the trivial source material a new level of meaning.
The works I most enjoyed viewing at the exhibit were the five "Eye" prints by Sebastiaan Bremer. These were hand painted high contrast black & white prints with "mixed media" that hearkened back to the best work of the Surrealists in their expression of subconscious imagery. The patterns placed on the close-up studies of the human eye had an almost psychedelic feel to them. On the other hand, Bremer's Juliet India, however technically accomplished, did not really work well as a photograph. The viewer's eye moved across the surface of the work without finding a point on which to fix its attention.
The exhibit continues through August 22, 2014.
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