Appropriation Art

In the world of visual art, the word appropriate means to borrow, recycle, adopt, or sample aspects of man-made visual culture. Art Practices involve the appropriation of ideas, symbols, images, objects, etc from popular cultures or other aspects of man made visual or non visual culture. In dealing with appropriation art comes the law of copyright law.  This law contains exclusive rights granted by the law of jurisdiction to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work.  However, there are many exceptions and limitations to these laws to strive to balance the public interest in something.  


The art world is full of many different aspects that have been borrowed or recycled from others works.  If that was not allowed then the art world would be very boring.  Many people find it interesting to see others views on objects or pictures or paintings that others have used before.  

The image above is an example of appropriation art that we actually looked at in class.  Shepard Fairey is an artist that was simply trying to help Obama win the election.  He took the photo of Obama that was taken by photographer Mannie Garcia and used it to base his new art work off of.  Fairey stated in an interview about the controversy over the art that, My Obama poster variations of “HOPE” and “PROGRESS” were obviously not intended to report the news. I created them to generate support for Obama; the point was to capture and synthesize the qualities that made him a leader. The point of the poster is to convince and inspire. It’s a political statement. My Obama poster does not compete with the intent of, or the market for the reference photo."

After reading through what appropriation art consists of and the laws and regulations that come up in talking about it, I feel as though this controversy over the Obama picture above is not necessary.  The artist was simply trying to help Obama win the election and he was showing his support.  Fairey was not trying to steal the photograph and make it his, he was trying to show his support for the Obama campaign and gain others to follow his beliefs.  Although many may argue differently with this conflict, I truely believe that he was not trying to take the work of Mannie Garcia.

The Functions of Art

After studying and viewing a bunch of different pieces of art, it is clear that there are three functions of art; personal, social, and physical.  These functions do and normally overlap in any given piece of art. The first function, the personal function is the most difficult to explain.  It can vary from person to person and can deal with many different feelings and emotions.  The second function, the social function deals with specific periods of life, or events that may have happened in life that affect many people.  This function of art doesn't look at just one persons feelings towards something, but instead a whole group of people and how they as a whole see something.  And the last function is probably the simplest function, the physical function.  This function deals with works of art that are created to perform some service.

Physical

personal

social

These photos along with many others can all be interpreted to contain some or all of the functions of art.  Depending on your own interpretations of art and your beliefs, everyone may have different views and opinions of these pieces.

“One of the principal ways we can change our relationship to difficult art is by repetition. An unpleasant piece of music may, the sixth or seventh time we listen, reveal new beauty. If we study one of Josef Albers's seemingly simple paintings of different colored squares, the colors start to shift. Of course, difficulty doesn't always give way to revelation - sometimes what follows is, alas, frustration. But when it does, we get that additional sense of satisfaction: The arduous ascent has been rewarded with a panoramic view.”

After reading this quote above, and looking at this very interesting piece of art I feel like the two almost fit perfectly together.  This piece of art is very unusual to me.  It looks like a calm and colorful drawing, but then if you look close you can see a face in the middle of all the butterflies, shapes and colors.  This simple and beautiful painting has now turned into something else because of this face.  Is it supposed to be portraying beauty in a different way, or is it supposed to be a face hiding behind all the other beautiful things in the world.  In my opinion I think this painting means there are so many beautiful things in the world and people are part of those things.  Along with butterflies, bright colors, shapes, love, happiness, people are probably the most beautiful of them all.

If you were to look at other pictures of unusual pieces of work you may see something different.  I even feel that if you stare at this painting long enough your opinions on what you first think it means will change to something else.  Maybe that is why art is so interesting and different from other things in the world.

Bruce Nauman

Putting neon lights together can be considered art?

To Bruce Nauman the answer is yes. The piece of art below is just an example of what Bruce Nauman does as an artist.

This kind of art is very interesting to me. The lights make it stand out right away.  Because of the attentiveness that Nauman receives from his art, you can definitely consider it to be art.  Nauman does not believe in repetition between artists.  And even though I am not well educated in the field of art, ive never seen someone portray art through neon lights before.  I think its really cool and many people like it. (Nicole)

                 

To me, as someone that does not have a great interest in art, this seems appealing. I think it may be because it is somewhat familiar to me in that I have seen neon signs and the way they are used. As it is I think the point of neon signs are to stand out in their surroundings so I would definitley consider this art. As a college student this modern, flashy type of art gets my attention much more than any statue or painting ever could. (Erin)

Pure Beauty

In looking at this picture, what do you see? what do you think?  When I look at this I see a distorted face that was blacked out by the painter. But in looking at this, I wouldn't call it 'pure beauty'. Many of you may argue with my opinion but that brings us back to the fact that everyone has their own opinions and their own views on what is art and what isn't, or what is beauty and what isn't in this case.
In searching through John Baldessari's work you can argue the fact of beauty through all of his pieces of work. (Nicole)
When looking at this picture I do see a form of art. I think that taking away the natural elements of a human face is strange and although I do not consider it beauty I definitely think the fact that it is interesting and makes you take a second look at it. In a way it leaves you curious about what the other features would look like. (Erin)

This painting above can also be considered "pure beauty" to some but not others.  John Baldessari wanted to get his point across that his art is not boring.  In fact it is just different.  It brings attentiveness from people and it gives people a different way to look at something.  What if paintings were blacked out? Doesn't it just make you focus on what is there? (Nicole)
I think I view art somewhat more harshly than others that perhaps know more about the subject. Because of this I found this painting entertaining because a lot of the art we see does bore or not interest me. This vow to not make any more boring art is humorous and allows John Baldessari to make a connection with people who may not have as much respect for art. (Erin)

                 
Another painting of John Baldessari's I found is the above called "Two Figures (red) and Two Figures (green) in Different Environments." I found it interesting that in this painting the artist blurred out the figures instead of perhaps the table or glasses. It seems like the people should be the vocal point in this painting and instead you are left focusing on the settings and the table contents. Although by looking at the settings I did form certain opinions such as the top setting seems more formal and the people in the painting seem engaged in more of a proper conversation. Whereas the bottom painting seems to be in a relaxed setting and the people seem much more comfortable in this atmosphere. (Erin)

Frida - Paintings of Pain

Frida Kahlo is famous for her paintings of people, mostly dealing with some sort of pain.  This picture above is one of Frida's most famous paintings called, "Without Hope".  From looking at other paintings that I've seen this is very different.  Is painting someones pain a form of art? To some people it might not be, but to me this picture in particular does come off as a piece of art.  It's showing this women's feelings inside of her and how they are all twisted together, some good and some bad. (Nicole)


                      
I agree that Frida's art is very different from anything I have seen before. After looking further into her other paintings I came across this painting called "The Little Deer." This painting follows the theme of showing pain in a form of art however I am not sure what the message behind this is meant to be. I can see a consistent theme in many of her paintings that show a tie between her and nature. I did some research on Frida and found out about her many health problems she had experienced throughout her life which makes these paintings a little more clear to me. I think she see herself in the same light as a deer being hunted because of her constant struggle with health they she cannot get away from. (Erin)

Can anything really be art?

According to Andy Willow who is known for his Brillo Boxes piece of art, he believes that anything can be considered art.  Depending on the individual looking at the piece, they can consider just about anything to really be art.  For example, Damien Hirst has a Shark in a glass box at the Met and many people consider that to be art. But isn't it really just a dead shark being displayed?  To some people that may be true but to others it may not.  Art is something that brings attentiveness from people and catches the eye of people even when they are not really looking.  It is something that some people perceive to be beautiful, ugly, interesting or fun.  In my opinion it really has to deal with the individuals idea of what is art and what it isn't. (Nicole) In my opinion art needs to be something displayed in such a way that interests people. Although this would obviously differ among different people. (Erin)