Posted on 10/08/2009 12:05:05 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed
Yesterday, the NYT ran a story about the White House acquiring art. It included a slide show of a dozen artworks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/arts/design/07borrow.html?_r=1
This Freeper took a look and found one abstract work he admired:
"Watusi (Hard Edge)," by Alma Thomas, a longtime Washington resident who is an African-American painter. Photo: Gift of Vincent Melzac/Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
As I admired it, I thought it reminiscent, even derivative of a favorite artwork of mine by Matisse. I recall seeing that one decades ago at the Tate Gallery in London. A giant collage (about ten feet tall) from late in Matisse's life, when his eyesight was failing:
The Snail (L'escargot), by Henri Matisse, Nice-Cimiez, Hotel Regina, [summer 1952-early] 1953, Gouache on paper, cut and pasted, on white paper, 9'4 3/4" x 9' 5" (287 x 288 cm) collection Tate Gallery, London.
I had planned to post them for comparison, and to share my admiration for both. But when I saw them side-by-side, the similarity clarified. I realized that the new one was EXACTLY the same composition as the Matisse, rotated 90 degrees.
Is this fraud? If the new piece has been titled "Homage to Collage" or "Matisse in Blue", I would think the artist wasn't trying to hide the copying. But I wonder whether anyone realized that the artist copied almost every aspect of a famous work to sell her artwork. Perhaps everyone involved knew that this is a re-colored reprint. If not, it seems to be an embarrassment for the "sophisticates" who failed to spot a copy hiding in plain sight.
As too many people say about abstract expressionist art: "Even I could have done THAT!"
Well, it’s not an exact copy. ;)
That depends on the meaning of the word, “exact”.
kind of like the story of the current occupant?
btt
I'm not trying to disparage Thomas. If her original intent was to comment upon Matisse's work, then it's legitimate artistic pursuit, and there isn't anything inherently "wrong" about it (though I would tend to call it somewhat "lazy.")
On the other hand, if she set out to do a work exactly like Matisse's just because "that old man" could do it, we're starting to enter a more questionable realm. But still: She's been dead for quite some time now. It really is a moot point, as far as I'm concerned.
And hey:—Modern art gave us a painting of a Campbell's soup can. As art. What in the heck is original in that whole field, anyway?
Regards,
Brian
Removing color, removes all doubt.
Good job!
Maybe the right word would be a *direct* copy.
“I get it. I get infuriated with people who were never slaves demanding “reparations” from people who never owned slaves, yet the direct descendants of victims of the Nazis cannot recover identifiable stolen property.”
I get even more infuriated with people who were never slaves or whose paternal ancestors were never slaves and whose maternal ancestors were slave owners demanding “reparations” from people who never owned slaves, yet the direct descendants of victims of the Nazis cannot recover identifiable stolen property.
LOL
You can add the belly button lint to the painting of the Polar Bear in a blizzard and sa it is wisps of fur in the wind...
EXCELLENT!.............
Nice brushwork.
Nice FReeper graphic work here in comparing the two artworks.
You have completely missed the point - there is no such thing as plagiarism in the visual arts. One cannot copy and paste a painting like one might copy and paste a passage of text. It’s no more possible for a painting to be an exact copy of a paper collage than it is for a singer to exactly reproduce another’s song.
When you listen to Jimi Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower” you’re not hearing Hendrix plagiarize Bob Dylan, you’re hearing a separate interpretation of the song; one that expands the original and connects the two artists. This is what is happening when you compare the painting by Thomas with Matisse’s collage - nothing more, nothing less.
I disagree. Visual arts are different from performing arts, because in performing arts, there is a clear division between the work and the performance. With visual arts, there isn’t.
When Hendrix plays a Dylan song, Dylan is acknowledged and understood by all as the songwriter. When one artist copies the work of another (and that’s exactly what this is: copying) without a clear credit to the source, then it is the equivalent of plagiarism. in fact, artists own copyrights in their works, and thus this is an instance of copyright infringement. We’d have to research the complicated issue of the dates involved, but as a rule, that painting is illegal, and the Matisse owners have the right to have it destroyed.
I understand that you disagree, and I understand why, so let me explain this from a different angle:
Would it possible for you to stand in front of the artwork by Matisse and have the same experience that you have when you stand in front of the artwork by Thomas?
There are numerous differences between the two pieces, obvious differences being that one is a painting and one is a paper collage (these are fundamentally different media, as far apart as acoustic versus electric guitar), but also that they are different colors. However, I submit to you that you would not have the same experience looking at the two, if for no other reason than that they were created by two different people.
Regardless, everything I’ve read indicates the following:
“Thomas’s 1963 painting, Watusi (Hard Edge) was originally created as a deliberate reworking of Matisse’s large 1953 cutout collage,l’Escargot, and that it had always been recognized and discussed as such by the people who followed Thomas’s work.”
Given that Thomas did openly acknowledge the relationship (as cited in the thread above) and that she made significant changes between hers and Matisse’s work (she changed the orientation, color, and media) she has met the criteria you’re concerned about. The real questions you should be asking:
Why would a black female American painter make a painting that so obviously refers to one of the most famous white male European painters’ works? And beyond that, what does it say about us today that we’re so suspicious of such a person, even though she was forthright about the inspiration, and we know she was an accomplished and self-conscious artist, who studied at both Harvard and Columbia?
Artists like Picasso originally became famous for taking inspiration from ‘primitive’ African art and translating that style into European oil paintings. When Thomas made this oil painting in the 1960’s, she was under heavy pressure to paint in a way that spoke of her identity as a black woman, which typically meant figuratively, and yet she chose to make this painting, directly inspired by European abstraction and modernism. I think this painting is a direct question from Thomas, and she’s asking if she’s allowed to make this painting. I know you’ve made up your mind, but I humbly suggest that this painting is about a dilemma Matisse could never have made a painting about, and I request that you reconsider your evaluation of it.
Would it possible for you to stand in front of the artwork by Matisse and have the same experience that you have when you stand in front of the artwork by Thomas?
This one does not disparage the original work, but it surely exploits it.
It would seem by your unconventional legal standards, it would be permissible for any film-maker to make a movie out of a best-seller, without contacting with the author for the movie rights, no?
As far as whether the copying was revealed, it’s unclear whether that was done by apologists after the fact, or openly at the time. That would affect my moral judgment of the copying, but not the legal judgment. The advance confessing of infringement is no defense.
If you’d like to show me Picasso’s “copy” of an African artwork, I’ll be happy to apply the same standard (sort of - as copying an unattributable primitive work is different from infringing the legal rights of a copyright owner).
I’ll donate if you want to fill the jar.
You can read all you like about Picasso’s African-influenced period on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasso
One of the African-influenced pieces Picasso is most famous for is his 1907 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Countless artists have made their own variations inspired by this work. One such example is the 1991 quilt-like painting by the African American artist Faith Ringgold, which directly uses portions of Picasso’s original composition.
http://greg.org/archive/ringgold_picasso_studio.jpg
There are thousands of other examples I can refer you to – Andy Warhol created an entire series of Last Supper paintings based on the original by da Vinci, many of which he literally created by screen-printing photographs of da Vinci’s painting onto a new canvas. You will not need to overlay any gifs to recognize that the compositions are identical. Warhol made common use of this practice of “copying” others’ works and recreating them, yet he is so highly respected that he’s widely considered the one of the most influential American artists ever, and there’s even a US postage stamp with his portrait on it.
There’s no misunderstanding of copyright law on my part; these are all established works of art that have been bought and sold for decades. There is only a misunderstanding on your part. You’re giving yourself too much credit for being able to accurately compare and understand two works of art after seeing only tiny thumbnails on the internet, and you’re also professing to “break news” of a relationship between two works of art even though that relationship has been known and discussed since 1963. Based on only the most cursory internet research you’ve gone ahead and accused a decent, hardworking person of outright legal misdoing. I think you’re doing it all to make some political point which has no bearing on the life and work of Thomas.
I think it would be appropriate to post an apology and a correction, but at the very least I implore you to give some more thought to the matter before you jump to similar conclusions in the future.
I know others used Picasso’s art, but can you show a picture where he copied the art of another?
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