History of Art

Catherine Harty: 'Once More With Feeling'

Appropriation is a basic artistic operation and a common social strategy. Artists appropriate when they use images that other artists have used and adapt them to their own interests. Both artists and the wider public appropriate when they take objects, images or practices and use them in a way unintended by the original producers/owners. Appropriation is one of the most basic procedures of contemporary art and life. Here I am going to revisit what can be termed 1980s ‘Appropriation Art’. I will be touching on a number of ideas which were used at the time to both contextualize and critique this work. I will discuss these predominately in relation to two artists, Sherrie Levine and Richard Prince. I will then move on to present some of the ways in which appropriation is used by artists working today, but also by people who would not define themselves as artists. When researching contemporary issues surrounding the re-use of already existing cultural artefacts and images, it became clear that the debate has moved from being one of interest in the art-world and academia to being one of much more general concern.