From Elizabeth Murray, who recently passed away:
”Everything has been done a million times. Sometimes you use it and it’s yours; another time you do it and it’s still theirs.”
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6 thoughts on “Deep Thought Thursday”
Hi Alyson, I was referred to your site by another blog and have really enjoyed reading what you’ve written. I blog about my artist client, Gali Rotstein, all the time and it’s nice to know that helps! Thanks for all the great advice and your willingness to share it. Looking forward to reading more! JOY
And even worse when your accused of copying theirs! I’ve enjoyed reading all your articles, thank you for all your advice.
I like what my hero, Wolf Kahn, said once. “You will copy me, and you’re welcome to.” I think it’s important to see artistically what others are doing, but then to focus on your own surface and go for it!
I am saddened to hear of Elizabeth’s passing. I was always inspired by her work, even though our work was unrelated. I consider her to be a real pioneer in opening up the art world for women. The idea of copying and originality made me think of something that Raffael Ferrer said in a presentation he made at an art school I attended. He said that as professional artists, we had an obligation to educate ourselves about what other artists were doing in our field, both contemporary and historically, that related to our own work. The idea of being aware and knowing what you were referencing, I think. Anyway–that statement has stayed with me all these years.
The reality is that we are indebted to past artists and poets. In order to make a unique statement with our art we will be repeating to some degree what someone else has done. So creative thief is a worthy subject but sometimes difficult to really prove and then sometimes not. A few years ago, in Charleston, I saw an artists work hung on a fairly nice gallery’s walls which were out right copies of the work of Joaquin Sorrolla (actually I have found same situation with the same artist at a local city Arts Council Gallery as well). So yes, as said by another post (Cristine)- we do need to know whats going on in the art world and for lots of reasons – that is not only for our own work but to be able to recognize the frauds and consequently that can in turn gives us feedback about a gallery dealer or the artist. To be informed is very important.
All: Thanks for your comments. I especially appreciate the stress on education. We just have to know what came before us in order to have credibility. I’m going to be pushing this in the 9/10 newsletter and more and more on this blog. It’s too important to ignore.