Monday, April 9, 2007

Stealing art?

What is your view on using other peoples artwork to create your own?

Where is the line between what classed as taking inspiration to downright copying?
You could for example argue that some Roy Lichtensteins work was "stolen' from the comic authors, where he used entire comic panels and created large canvas copies. A move that raised many complaints from artist circles (particularly that of comic book artists).

However he argued that it was not simply a case of him copying someone else's art, he was attempting to bring the "art of today" into a broader scope of the art world. Its a difficult example, but it does highlight my point... was he simply copying lesser known (and smaller, comic book following) artists or was he highlighting an important idea of our perceptions of art and Art? (Bearing in mind that it was the 1960s)

Anyway the focus of this post is that of Todd Goldman aka Todd Goliath of David and Goliath]David and Goliath
(The bloke who produced the "Boys are stupid - throw rocks at them)



He has come under fire from the webcomic world for using a known comic and copying it as a painting, and then displaying it in a high profile LA art gallery (Wentworth gallery)in an exhibition entitled Golddigger.

The original image is well known and some of you will probably know of it. Its original form is from Purple Pussy by Dave Kelly from the September 19, 2001 strip. Its a popular webcomic which has been translated into a number of different languages.



So it came as some surprise when this was submitted in Goldman's exhibit:


Not only that but he's done a few of them and has slightly modified them... the original artist Dave Kelly overlayed his image over Goldman's to see how he's changed it in later revisions:




Bit too close for comfort....

This has obviously made people look at the other works by David and Goliath... and what do you know... found another similar looking character...
One being that of graphic novel artist Roman Dirge and his character Lenore


and David and Goliath's Evil L


Complete with matching cat sidekicks...
Might be a random coincidence since they do look different but share similarities.... but it does make you wonder...

Random similarity or genuine blatant stealing of other peoples work?

Most art can genuinely be copied if its NOT sold for profit... so if the painting of the praying squirrel is just on display and not for sale it is, in theory allowed... but should it be when the original artist has no clue about its existence?

Hummm....

On another note, its time to FINALLY announce the winner of THE ULTIMATE BLOG PARTY COMPETITION


GingaNic's PARTY COMPETITION

Drumroll please.....








The winner is EEEEMommy!!
I'll be emailing you soon EEEEMommy, your prize awaits!

Oh and I realise I've missed last weeks WTF FACTOR FRIDAY!, I've not been on the net so I failed to venture onto the blogger world... so next friday will be two submissions... hurrah!

So until next time
ttfn
Nic

1 comment:

BecsLifeOnline said...

Grrr! Darn art theives! He's been around for years, it's a wonder he wasn't sued AGES ago. Anyway, I'm being slightly double standard-ish... I have a David and Goliath poster on my wall.