Universal Principles of Art

4 APPROPRIATION

PRESENTING THE WORK OF OTHERS IN A NEW CONTEXT

Appropriation is the act of taking work by another artist and presenting it in a new context as original. The intention is to highlight the radical idea that art is something whose meaning is as much defined by its context as by anything built into, or contained by, an artwork. This process of appropriation and re-presentation is known as recontexualization. It naturally invites questions about the nature of originality, authorship, authenticity, and uniqueness.

Wholesale appropriation of an artwork is very different from quoting another work of art within a new one, a maneuver that goes back through many centuries. It also differs from the appropriation of other objects or images ...