The Importance of Appropriation Art in Postmodernism Culture - Essay Example

? Appropriation as a critical practice in postmodernist art Introduction Appropriation is a significant part of postmodernism that has always played an important role in the history of the arts (visual, musical, and literary), which in practice is "the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work" (TATE, Appropriation). The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives two definitions that can be related to art appropriation. The first one states that appropriation is “to take exclusive possession of” while the second states, appropriation is “to take or make use of without authority or right” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Definition of appropriate). In the context of visual arts, art appropriation is associated with concepts of borrowing, adoption, recycling, or sampling certain aspects or even the entire form of any visual arts creation. The strategies used include recombinant, variation, interpretation, re-vision, imitation, supplement, re-evaluation, version, improvisation, increment, homage, paraphrase, forgery, mimicry, allusion, and karaoke.  Thus, in this form of art the artist while creating a new object uses certain elements borrowed from another artist’s works. This borrowing, referred to in the context of describing the new work, will term it as 'the artist uses appropriation;' or it may also directly refer to the new work and state, 'this is a piece of appropriation art'. Within ‘Arts’ the practice of appropriation involves the use of other artists’ symbol, ideas, artefacts, objects, photographs, sound, forms or styles from the various cultures, popular culture, art history, or any man created visual or non visual art form (Schneider, 2003). An elementary feature of appropriation art is that the artist in his new work simply reframes the original idea and presents it as a new one. Thus, in a majority of the cases, the original work still remains visible or accessible without change within the framework of the new creation. Anthropologists in their various research papers have claimed that this process of appropriation, is another form of cultural borrowing and includes concepts of both art and urbanism, and represents a path of the cultural modifications taking place while also distinguishing the relationship between the different cultures worldwide (Schneider, 2007). The words variation and  appropriation in art often viewed as synonyms and used interchangeably, to denote the same form of work (ibid). In this context, we will examine works of three famous artists Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Barbara Kruger as we explore the use of appropriation as a critical practice in postmodernist art.  Discussion A brief overview of the history of appropriation art: Various artists, scholars and critics, have studied and analysed the route of the ‘appropriative’ notions that have been present in the arts history for many centuries. The word ‘appropriation’ implies ownership rights, and associated questions on unethical practices. Appropriation has been long present within the history of arts, and a study of the ancient artworks will reveal that the classical Greek artworks existed primarily through the Roman art appropriations. These were presented in the form of reproductions, created specially, to preserve, to keep records, to document, or to elicit a culture they hoped to imitate in the future (Deloria, 1999), while during the Middle Ages, a perfectly reproduced artwork was generally granted the same honour as the original piece. As per the notions associated with appropriation art, one can also refer Leonardo da Vinci as an appropriation artist of the middle ages. Da Vinci used the ‘recombinant’ technique of appropriation, and accepted ideas from different sources and diverse subjects like art, mathematics, biology, and engineering and then combining them to create inventory artworks. In fact, modern historians contend that many of Da Vinci’s scientific models and designs were imitated and improvised versions of the works of another famous sculptor Filippo Brunelleschi, used later by Da Vinci to create new technological marvels of that era (Ross, 2000). In the same context, one can also contend that in the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin studied, analysed, and later reframed theories derived from science and nature, to postulate his own, Theory of Evolution. Fig 1: Pablo Picasso’s ‘appropriate’ artwork, “Composition with Fruit, Guitar, and Glass” -1912. During 20th century ‘appropriate art’ became more common and popular with the works of famous artists like Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso that ‘appropriated’ non-artistic materials into the context of their artworks. Picasso, in many of his famous art compositions like the Newspaper, Guitar, Glass and Bottle (1913) where we find that Picasso made use of various newspaper clippings to create different forms was later termed as ‘synthetic cubism’(fig 1). Thus, here we find that Picasso ‘incorporated’ "real world" dimensions into his artwork and framed it into his canvas to create something new, and in the process opened up a line of discussion of allusion and the artistic delineation. In 1917, Marcel Duchamp first brought in the notions of ‘readymade’ where he created the famous Fountain for the “American Society of independent Artists exhibition.” here a urinal was used where it was put on its side and mounted on a pedestal and signed "R. Mutt" (fig 2). The urinal was not an original piece of work, neither could it be labelled as rare, the creativity was in using a Fig 2: “Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp (1917). a material from a non artistic context, and improvising on it to be made suitable for an artistic subject. The Dada movement that included Duchamp continued with various experimentations with the appropriation of daily items, which did not try to levitate the "low" to "high" art ranks, and instead focussed on producing artwork where the aspects of haphazardness and chance formed the foundations for creativity. Famous Dada artists included Emmy Hennings, Hugo Ball, Hans Richter, Jean Arp, Andre Breton, and Tristan Tzara. Another famous artist, Kurt Schwitters, a contemporary of the Dadaists, shows a similar theme of appropriation in his "merz" artworks. He constructed his pieces of art from various objects available from daily lives, and used them to create large constructions that were later famous as “installations.” Fig 3: Self-portrait by Meret Oppenheim, Skull and ornament, 1964. The Surrealists, coming after the Dada movement, also incorporated the use of "found" objects such as Meret Oppenheim's Object (Luncheon in Fur) (1936), or his Skull and ornament (1964). Here he incorporates objects from the ‘real world’ (an X-ray photograph of his own skull and images of supplements it with earrings) to create a new form of artwork, and the various objects were combined and used in a manner where they took on a completely new meaning. It was in 1938, when we find that appropriation entered the realms of films when Joseph Cornell produced 'Rose Hobart’, which inspired many of the later video artists use appropriation in their works. In 1958, Bruce Conner used appropriation in his well-known film, 'A Movie' where he used the technique of ‘recombining’ film clips to produce the final movie that reflected in the disposition of human beings towards anything which displayed violence. Raphael Montanez Ortiz at around the same time was associated with the 'Destructionist' movement where the films and objects were ripped apart and burned, to destroy them partially, and then later recombined to create new artworks. In 1958, Ortiz produced the well known "Cowboy and Indian Film', which showed the concept of appropriation within film work. In the 1950s, Robert Rauschenberg made use of "combines" where he literally combining readymade objects such as beds, tyres, collages, silk-screens, paintings, and photography to create new artworks. Similarly, Jasper Johns appropriated iconic images like the US flag, or other famous "target" symbols, into his artwork. At around the same time we find that famous artists like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and Roy Lichtenstein appropriated images from the world of popular culture and that of commercial art while amalgamating techniques of these industries. Often referred to as the "pop artists," they visualised that the ‘mass-popular culture’ would become the main dialectal culture that would be accessible to all irrespective of education. These artists were completely interested into making use of the ephemera that was emanating from the new concept of ‘mass-popular culture,’ and embracing the concept of superfluity, had this ‘pop culture’ distancing itself from the showing evidence of the handiwork of the original artists. Thu, we find that ‘appropriation’ as an art became extremely popular during the twentieth century art history, the time period that was termed as the ‘contemporary art’ period or the postmodernism in art. This period in arts started with the beginning of the 20th century and continued until the early 1980s. From the brief overview we find that appropriation art mainly flourished during this time period, thus, making it a critical practice in postmodernist art, while also making it a distinguishing feature of this period. In recent years, however, there is a tendency amongst the scholarly and critical circles to re-define recent works in contention to ‘appropriate art’ and label this mode of art as a more recent phenomena of the 1980s (Evans, 2009). The modern day concept of New York based ‘appropriation art’ centres mainly on the photographic appropriations of by famous artists like Barbara Kruger, Richard Prince, and Sherrie Levine. These artists, inspired by Duchamp’s concept of ‘readymade’ and taking a cue from the ‘Situationist’ deviation produced ‘pictures’ from various imageries that were appropriated from the archetype of the ‘capitalist’ visual tradition. In this context, we will now examine works by Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Barbara Kruger to getter an in-depth insight into the subject of art appropriation. Works by Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Barbara Kruger: After the rise of the commercialism and consumerism at the end of the World War II, the notions of mass culture or pop culture that produced ‘pop art’ dominated both the social world and the art world. Here Alloway comments, as regards pop art that, “that area of contact was mass produced urban- culture: movies, advertising, science fiction, pop music... [it was] accepted as fact...and consumed enthusiastically” (Alloway, 1974, 31-32). Andy Warhol one of the most famous artists of this ‘pop art’ during 1960s started making paintings of the iconic US products like the Coca-Cola bottles, and Campbell's Soup Cans (fig 4). Fig 4: Warhol’s soup can screen painting (Source: The collection. Campbell’s soup can). This painting also known as “32 Campbell's Soup Cans” (Frazier, 2000) is a famous artwork produced by Andy Warhol, in 1962. this painting had thirty-two canvases, each measuring inches (510 mm or 20 inches) in height ? 16 inches or 410 mm) in width each one showed a Campbell's Soup can, one of each of the  soup varieties produced by Campbell at that time (The collection, Campbell’s soup can). Each individual painting was created using the printmaking method, which was an automatic silkscreen process, and without using any traditional painting style. Campbell's Soup Cans' painting from taking help from the notions of popular culture assisted in bringing in the ‘pop art’ from UK and turning into a major art movement in the USA. This combining of the automatic processes (mechanised), and the non-painting style (in terms of traditional painting format), and the very nature of the commercial theme, initially created a huge outcry and opposition, that condemned Warhol’s work as going against all notions of arts and creativity. Warhol's aims as a ‘real’ artist were put under question, and he faced a number of lawsuits, however it also helped to transform Warhol from being a simply well known commercial illustrator to a fine artist, and made his name almost synonymous with the Campbell's Soup can paintings. This similar technique is also seen in another famous printing of Marilyn Monroe where he simply duplicated the frontal picture of the artist and reproduced it multiple times, making only very slight modification to the original profile picture. Warhol thus, turned his pictures into a type of reproduction of another reproduction, without any signs of his own creativity or actual painting work which is the form of appropriate art used by the pop artists of the 1950s (Huyssen,1989,53). Fig 5: Paintings of Marilyn Monroe, by Andy Warhol (Source: all postors.com) Robert Rauschenberg is another well-known appropriate artist of the 1950s who was famous for his "Combines" where he made use of various non-traditional items and materials and used them in many innovative combinations (fig 6). Rauschenberg was a sculptor and painter, and his ‘Combines’ reflect both the forms, however, he also experimented with papermaking, printmaking, photography, and performance. Fig 6: Riding bikes, by Robert Rauschenberg, 1998. Here he made use of daily object like two bicycles to from an object of art. There were no new signs of creativity in this price of work, where two objects from non-artistic arena were improvised, to fit into the artistic context, thus making it into an appropriate art. Rauschenberg collected trash and found various objects that attracted him from the New York City streets and integrated these discarded items into his work (Fugelso, K). He claimed he "wanted something other than what I could make myself and I wanted to use the surprise and the collectiveness and the generosity of finding surprises, and if it wasn't a surprise at first, by the time I got through with it, it was. So the object itself was changed by its context and therefore it became a new thing” (Brooks, 2005). Barbara Kruger, an American conceptual artist, is more contemporary, and a major part of her work consists of black and white photographs that have declarative captions overlaid within them, in white-on-red Helvetica Ultra Condensed or Futura Bold Oblique font. She primarily makes use of strong pronouns such as "you", "your", "I", "we", and "they" in her works (fig 7). Here we again we find that photos of Kruger's engages the amalgamation of ‘found’ pictures from already existing sources with abrupt and direct texts that makes the viewer involved in the fight for gaining control and power that her words mainly reflect. In trademark white fonts against a background of red her most famous photographs are “I shop therefore I am,” (fig 7) and “Your body is a battleground." Her photographs with their texts have an underlying meaning that gives the viewer ideas of strong consumerism, feminism, desire, and individual autonomy, however in contrast are her black-and-white images that taken from various popular magazines seem to sell the very notions that she contends in her images. Fig 7: “you are not yourself” by Barbara Kruger (Source: Barbara Kruger) and “I shop therefore I am” (Barbara Kruger with Lauren Ruth, 2010) Kruger connects her texts and images with critical ideas on sexism and power within the various social cultures and this forms a constant motif in almost all her works. She has said, "I work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are and who we aren’t" (Barbara Kruger, Circus, 2011). Her works represent the modern form appropriation that encompasses alternation or modification of existing pictures, where we find that the importance of appropriation art in postmodernism culture is its ability to combine dominant text and imagery conventions, to form new meanings and pictures. Conclusion Appropriation, in art, though present from the ancient times have flourished and gained popularity largely during the twentieth century, with the coming of the ‘postmodernism’ era in arts. In the context of visual arts, art appropriation is associated with concepts of borrowing, adoption, recycling, or sampling certain aspects or even the entire form of any visual arts creation. The strategies used are recombination, variation, interpretation, re-vision, imitation, supplement, re-evaluation, version, improvisation, increment, homage, paraphrase, forgery, mimicry, allusion, and karaoke.  All this techniques which can be simply put as ‘cut and paste’ have been used by various artists to form new works of art, thus redefining the very concept of arts, and ushering in a new form of creativity. Bibliography Alloway, L., 1974. “The development of birth pop”. In, Pop Art, by L.R. Lippard ( ed.). London: Thames and Hudson. Barbara Kruger. You are not yourself. Retrieved from, http://wwol.is.asu.edu/kruger.html Barbara Kruger with Lauren Ruth, 2010. Retrieved from http://sundaytheory.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/barbara-kruger-with-lauren-ruth/ Barbara Kruger. Circus, 2011. Retrieved from http://www.schirn.de/en/exhibitions/2010/barbara-kruger.html Brooks, R., 2005. Rosetta Brooks Interviews Robert Rauschenberg. ARTINFO. retrieved from, http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/9117/rosetta-brooks-interviews-robert-rauschenberg/ Evans, D., (ed.), 2009. Appropriation. Cambridge: MIT Press. Frazier, N., 2000. The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Art History, new York: Penguin Group. Fugelso, K., 2004. "Robert Rauschenberg's Inferno Illuminations." In: Postmodern Medievalisms. (Eds.), Richard Utz and Jesse G. Swan. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer 47–66. Huyssen, A. 1989. “The cultural politics of pop”. In, Post Pop art, by P. Taylor (ed,). Cambridge: MIT press. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Definition of appropriate. Retrieved from, http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/appropriating Ross K. (2000). Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Church in Florence. New York: Walker. Schneider, A., 2003. On "Appropriation": a Critical Reappraisal of the Concept and its Application in Global Art Practices. Social Anthropology, 11(2), 215-29. Schneider, A., 2006. Appropriation as Practice: Art and Identity in Argentina. New York: Palgrave. TATE. Appropriation. Retrieved from, http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=23 The collection. Campbell’s soup cans. Retrieved from, http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79809 Read More