A Historical Approach to Originality and Replication in Visual Art
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Date
2022
Authors
Fairman, Alana
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This paper takes the reader through several foundational movements in defining originality and replication in visual art, beginning with the gilded age in Europe, continuing through modernism and postmodernism, and ending with the digital age. The notions of originality and replication have always seemed to be at odds with one another, with movements favoring one over the other but never coupling the two as essential to a meaningful artistic practice. The advancements in technology and shifts in societal values demonstrate how originality and replication shape one another and in turn shape the art movements of the time. Through investigating key artists within and between each movement, the texts of art critics and historians, and how these writings relate to legislation and the standards of what the art experience should be, a more comprehensive perspective develops about how humans relate to the original and the copy. Today, in the digital age, artists must wrestle with how they create during a time period where each image has an almost endless string of images trailing behind it; this paper seeks to offer clarity and direction for how visual artistic practices can still be original in a time where the prestige of the original is fading.
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Keywords
Originality, Replication, Art, Digital, Copy