Edited by David Evans Documents of Contemporary Art Whitechapel Gallery/MIT press
aside Read essay from Douglas Crimp’s pictures exhibition
(Appropriation, p.8) w the ‘Pictures’ show I organized at Artists Space in 197
aside look up this exhibition
(Appropriation, p.8) pervasive art based on the possession - usually unauthorized - of the images and artefacts of others. Good definition? (Appropriation, p.9) These duties clearly emerge in the ‘Critical Lexicon’ compiled by Michael N ew m an for the anthology Postmodernism, published by the ICA. London, in 1985. #aside > (Appropriation, p.9) Parodys ‘so widespread in contemporary art that it is tem pting to regard it, together with appropriation, allegory and bricolage, as one of the characteristic strategies by which we m ight define a p o stm o d e rn ist art’. Read this for the Death of the Author pages and the Allegory page
(Appropriation, p.11) Not surprisingly, therefore, a major theme in the texts represented in the Postcolonialism section is the re-taking of that which was possessed without authority.
What is the difference between appropriation of the image itself, and the appropriation of a style or vibe?
Louis Aragon The Challenge to Painting
(Appropriation, p.15) One can imagine a time when painters will no longer even have their colour applied by others and will no longer draw. Collage offers us a foretaste of this time. Louis Aragon, The Challenge to Painting (Appropriation, p.15) What is now maintained, is on the one hand, the negation of technique, as in collage, as well as of the ‘technical personality’; the painter, if we can still call him that, is no longer bound to his canvas by a mysterious physical relationship analogous to procreation.
(Appropriation, p.16) To be well made, a maxim does not need to be corrected. It needs to be developed. Isadore Ducasse
This text is an excerpt, an appraisal of how collage is a challenge to painting. I’m not sure if the author is reluctant or disapproving of the artist becoming divorced from their canvas, or whether that taking and improving (developing), is the morality of collage. Is the difference between appropriation of a ready made/an object etc the idea that it was not and is being transformed into an art work. Is it the sheer scale of appropriation and homogeneity that it caused the issue?
Raoul Hausmann Photomontage 1931
(Appropriation, p.16) But just as revolutionary as the content of photomontage was its form - photography and printed texts combined and transformed into a kind of static film.
This text is about the potential of photomontage, a response to the technique being passe perhaps, or old hat. The author argues that as a reflection of environment, as our political, social and psycological structures change, so will photomontage be available to develop, offering alternative (literal) perspectives, contrasts in form and texture.