APPROPRIATION ~1950 APPROPRIATION IS A POST-MODERN CONCEPT, ALTHOUGH ALSO SEEN IN SOME MODERN WORKS, WHICH INVOLVES THE BORROWING OF AN ARTISTIC IDEA (LIKE MUSICAL SAMPLING) AND PLACING WITHIN A NEW ARTWORK OR CONTEXT TO CREATE A SPECIFIC MESSAGE.

What is Happening in the World? The world was recovering from WW2 Consumerism was on the rise Pop art/Op art

What Did They Bring to the Art Table? - Artists “appropriated” other works of art. -They borrowed familiar subjects and re-contextualized them. -Re-contextualization helped comment on the image and the viewers association with the original thing. -They found a way to comment on existing themes.

What did they reject/dislike -Copyright infringement -People who didn’t like them -Lawsuits

Common Characteristics: -Mediums varied -often borrowed elements from other artwork -took existing themes and put them under a different “light”

54) Picasso. The Rape of the Sabines. (1957) Oil on Canvas

 Created at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 – American discovery of Soviet Missiles  Contemporary events are shown through an art historical filter  Here Picasso borrows from Nicolas Poussin’s Rape of the Sabine Women ( ) and Jacques-Louis David’s The Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799)  The Roman Empire here symbolizes the Russian and American Empires embroiled in the Cold War – shown as grotesque & barbaric  Focus is on the suffering of victims of war: the women and children (soldier stepping on child)

55) Batye Saar. The liberation of Aunt Jemima. (1972) Mixed Media.

 Saar is a graphic designer and educator – often uses found objects and folk art in her work  Unflattering images of African-Americans have been around in popular culture for at least 150 years of North American society – “Aunt” is used as a familiar but subordinate term for a domestic servant – Aunt Jemima is a fictional caricature, used to sell pancake mix  Saar uses three versions of Aunt Jemima in this work to question and turn around such images  The oldest image is in the background – where Jemima is holding a screaming child  The most modern image of her make her thinner and lighter skinned – implying that she is made more attractive by looking less black  The largest figure of Aunt Jemima holds a rifle a pistol and a broom and there is also a “Black-Power” fist silhouetted in front – makes the image less innocuous (less innocent)

56) Guerilla Girls. Do women have to be naked to get into the Met museum? (1989) Poster.

 A group of performance / protest artists who promote a feminist agenda – members are anonymous (they wear Guerilla masks)  This poster was the result of their survey in the Metropolitan Museum of New York in which they counted how many male versus female nudes were shown in the artwork, as well as how many male versus female artists were featured within the Museum  The Guerilla Girls continue to advocate for fair representation of female art at public institutions as well as a variety of other initiatives.  This image uses Ingres’ Grand Odalisque as the appropriated famous female nude to express their message

57) Cindy Sherman. Untitled Film Still #3 (Woman in Kitchen) (1977). Photograph.

 Known for her photos and short films often featuring herself as the model  This image shows the typical 1960’s view of women’s role (i.e. to be in the kitchen) – her image questions women’s traditionally accepted role in society  She acts in her photos playing a type – archetypal housewife, woman in distress, etc. of B movies  Using the “untitled” name and assigning a number helps to de- personalize the works