Replication

One of the ways that painting has defined itself is by the uniqueness of each object. A painting is the exclusive work of the artist- a combination of concept and craft- that gains its authenticity because of its handmade quality and inimitability (contrasted with the lossless reproduction in photography’s prints and sculpture’s casts). However, we can use this unique quality of painting as a source for reaction, as many contemporary artists do. What happens when we execute the same painting twice? Which is unique? Which is the original?

We will intensify this question by reproducing an existing work of art. Most of our experience with paintings is through seeing replications- either in books, posters, or online. By re-creating these paintings, they become reproductions of reproductions. What is the value of the reproduction? What is the value of the original that has been reproduced infinitely? Students will begin by executing one copy of a chosen artwork and then do a second painting that expands the idea of replication.

Consider
What does it mean for a painting to be unique? Does our appreciation for it depend on this quality?
What happens to a work when it is reproduced?
What are the implications when a work is reproduced as a painting over and over?
How can we expand the idea of replication?

Materials
Source images, books, Photoshop, canvases, & other painting materials.

Part 1: Replication
Use the selected source image and execute it on canvas or panel in a faithful manner. Pay particular attention to drawing, shape, proportion, color, and brushstroke. Your painting should approximate the size of the painting or section.

Part II: Expanding Replication
1. Create the copy painting again (you may also choose to do the 2 simultaneously).
2. Create the copy painting again but invert all the colors. Use Photoshop to do this. Since only the colors change, the drawing, shapes, and brushwork should be the same (you may also choose to do the 2 simultaneously).
3. Create a detail (zoomed-in) version of your first copy where you crop a closer section and increase scale.
4. Create a mirror image of the first painting by reversing the horizontal orientation.
5. Overlay a second image so that the two create a kind of double exposure. Again, use Photoshop to do this via layers. Your second image should be another copy- and one whose composition melds with the first in an interesting way. You may manipulate the colors do this.

Look at
Glenn Brown

This British artist works with appropriated images from art history greats like Rembrandt and Dali as well as contemporary artists Frank Auerbach and Howard Hodgkin. His earlier works involved replicating specific effects through meticulous rendering (like impasto that becomes flat in his representation), while his more recent works have become combinations of different paintings into new hybrids.

Cecilia Edefalk

Edefalk was born in Sweden and work in Berlin and Stockholm. She uses duplication as a means to challenge the act of painting as a unique process. Her works often involve many versions of the same image, a double portrait, Laurel and Hardy, a self-portrait, greek sculpture. In this way, we study the careful way in which she paints and the implications for repeating an image over and over.

David Ording

This Boston based artist uses art history texts as the source for his intensely faithful paintings. He often juxtaposes many images from books onto the same canvas, creating large montages of the art history canon. Again, the images are beautiful as representations- but shifting their context makes us think about the ways in which we encounter these images.