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July 15, 2005
Honesty Through Imitation
(Referenced artists or artworks open in another window. Click away, seeing is crucial.)
Roberta Smith of the New York Times has an excellent review of the Richard Pettibone retrospective currently at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. The 215 pieces shown are a kind of postmodern ode to modernism and all fit somewhere in the realm of derivative art.
Mr. Pettibone makes perfectly detailed and accurate copies of great modernist paintings and sculptures...scaled down to pocket size. Little Warhol soup cans, Marilyns, and flowers. Tiny Duchamps. Wee Mondrians. Some miniscule versions stand alone as completed pieces, while others are layered and combined together like mini modernist fruit tarts: Stellas on top of Lichtensteins.
Mr. Pettibone knows his modern art and references to other artists and artworks are layered thickly. The stacked triplicate copy of Warhol's soup cans is also a reference to Jasper John's "Three Flags." Armed with a familiarity with American modernism, the pieces rocket from being small, cute replicas of vaguely familiar icons to being a witty and personal interaction with a beloved subject matter.
Ms. Smith offers the reader a helpful -- and I think accurate -- apologetic for appreciating Mr. Pettibone's derivative art as original and valuable:
Mr. Pettibone is a connoisseur and careful explorer of the chief wellspring of art-making: the simple love of art. His work makes transparent the complex mixture of discernment, admiration, and competition that spurs artists to make something they can call their own.
She concludes:
[Pettibone's art's] emotional wisdom for the artistically inclined is bracingly clear: love art, love yourself, do what you have to do and what only you can do. Utter honesty is the only path to originality.
And, in case you were wondering, the answer is "no." What the Chinese are churning out is not derivative art. But we can discuss that later...
Art , Writing | By elissa | 04:17 PM
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