Appropriation (art)

Appropriation in art is the deliberate reuse of existing images, objects, or styles in a new artwork. Its meaning often depends on how reuse changes the source’s context, authorship, or cultural associations.

Readymade: An artwork made by selecting and presenting an ordinary manufactured object as art. Marcel Duchamp’s readymades made selection itself a form of artistic reuse.
Fountain (Duchamp): Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 artwork consisting of a porcelain urinal signed “R. Mutt.” It made the act of selecting and presenting a manufactured object central to the artwork.
Marcel Duchamp: A French-American artist whose readymades challenged conventional definitions of art. His readymades established selection and presentation as artistic gestures.
Originality: The quality of being new or independently created rather than copied or derived. Appropriation tests whether artistic value requires an original source image.
Postmodernism: A broad cultural movement marked by skepticism toward universal narratives, stable meanings, and modernist ideals. Appropriation became a prominent postmodern strategy for questioning originality and artistic authority.
Sampling (art): The reuse of fragments from existing works in a new artistic composition. Sampling shows how appropriation can transform a source through repetition and recombination.
L.H.O.O.Q.: Marcel Duchamp’s altered reproduction of the Mona Lisa, marked with a moustache and a punning title. It turns a famous reproduction into a playful intervention in artistic reverence.
Andy Warhol: An American artist associated with Pop art, repetition, and images drawn from mass culture. His use of advertisements and consumer products made popular imagery central to painting.
Copyright: A legal right that gives creators control over specified uses of their original works. Appropriation can involve copying protected material, raising questions of permission and infringement.
Authorship: The attribution of a work to its maker and the associated claims of creative responsibility. Reused images complicate the boundary between the appropriating artist’s contribution and the source maker’s.

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