Post-modernism theory highlights today’s theories of art and how people take art these days. Post-modernism theory portrays that modern artists do not develop new ideas but reconstruct the original artist’s conceptions. Hence, the theory asserts that the post-modernist approach has characteristics of digression and destruction of good views and ideologies associated with art. It also entails that there is no single truth in art when it comes to post-modernism art because the artist in the modern world feels that everything that should be done has already been done by the then artists. Also, post-modernism art maintains that there is no purpose or message the reproduced piece of art seeks to convey, and the only good thing about it is its embrace of diversity. Still, it is full of parody, irony, and playfulness.
Post-modernism theory copies ideas because they lack originality. Post-modernism theory of art is not original enough, and artists create other pieces by copying the original artists. “The Case for Copying” video by the art of Assignment emphasizes copying from the post-modern artist who replicates ideas from the original artists and fails to recognize them. An example is Sherri Levine, who copied Walker Evans’s idea in 1981 and outrightly stated it as Evans’s idea. The video asserts that there is a lot of copying, which prompts people to become less creative because people get drawn to the image-saturated world” [0 min 55 sec]. These stances mean that post-modern artists do not value authenticity because they would rather make a copy of the already existing work rather than create their own. Also, the video emphasizes the idea of copying by asserting that post-modern artists lack borrowing techniques because most artists do not borrow but steal these ideas, killing their historical aspect.
The people who benefit most from the post-modernism projects are those who steal them, not the original artists. An excellent example of a post-modern artist who thrives from the works of previous art through copying is the young Basquiat, a twenty-year-old man invited to Modena, Italy, to showcase his first solo exhibition. Basquiat has a metric success in his work called ‘black Picasso,’ but his piece is not crafted from scratch; he gets it from textbooks that portray visual materials, most of which are biographies. He also reproduced the works of Leonardo and Eduard Manet, including that of Pablo Picasso (Moore). These assertions prove that with the post-modernism art era, the benefits are for the post-modern artists because they thrive with the information from the historical artist. If post-modern artists fail to appreciate original artists, the art pieces are theirs but lack historical significance.
Furthermore, the video “The Case for Copying” by The Art Assignment maintains that post-modern artists benefit more because they receive credit for the work they have copied. The video states that copying the pieces from post-modern artists indicates that the original work is a myth because it distorts an integral part of the image, usually embedded in history. Besides, the video emphasizes the need to recognize the artistic pieces of historical artists because their works are authentic and original, compared to the newly replicated images, which do not indicate the authenticity of the work they copied from. Hence, there is a need to maintain the authenticity of art pieces. Mimesis occurs in the field of art and many other areas. Therefore, if one could get inspiration from an original work, let them get inspiration from the pieces but not copy and fail to recognize the original artists.
Work Cited
Moore Jordana, Sagesse. » Jean-Michel Basquiat, Horn Players. Smarthistory.org. (2023). https://smarthistory.org/jean-michel-basquiat-horn-players/
The Art Assignment. » The Case for Copying. Smarthistory.org. (2023). https://smarthistory.org/case-for-copying/
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