Appropriation in art is the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them. The use of appropriation has played a significant role in the history of the arts (literary, visual, musical and performing arts). In the visual arts, to appropriate means to properly adopt, borrow, recycle or sample aspects (or the entire form) of human-made visual culture. Notable in this respect are the Readymade of Marcel Duchamp.

Inherent in our understanding of appropriation is the concept that the new work

re-contextualizes

whatever it borrows to create the new work. In most cases the original 'thing' remains accessible as the original, without change.

Appropriation, similar to found object art is "as an artistic strategy, the intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of preexisting images, objects, and ideas". It has also has been defined as "the taking over, into a work of art, of a real object or even an existing work of art. "The Tate Gallery traces the practice back to Cubism and Dadaism, and continuing into 1940s Surrealism and 1950s Pop art. It returned to prominence in the 1980s with the Neo-Geo artists, and is now common practice among contemporary artists like Richard Prince, Sherrie Levine, and Jeff Koons.

Guitar, Newspaper, Glass and Bottle (1913), Pablo Picasso.

First half of the 20th century

In the early twentieth century Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque appropriated objects from a non-art context into their work. In 1912, Picasso pasted a piece of oil cloth onto the canvas. Subsequent compositions, such as  Guitar, Newspaper, Glass and Bottle (1913) in which Picasso used newspaper clippings to create forms, is early collage that became categorized as part of synthetic cubism.  The two artists incorporated aspects of the "real world" into their canvases, opening up discussion of signification and artistic representation.

Left: Pablo Picasso, I, 1911–12, oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 25 3/4 inches (MoMA); Right: Georges Braque, The Portuguese, 1911–12, oil on canvas, 46 x 32 inches (Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland)

Marcel Duchamp Fountain, 1917, photograph by Alfred Stieglitz at 291 (art gallery) following the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibit, with entry tag visible. The backdrop is The Warriors by Marsden Hartley

Marcel Duchamp in 1915 introduced the concept of the readymade, in which "industrially produced utilitarian objects, achieve the status of art merely through the process of selection and presentation. "Duchamp explored this notion as early as 1913 when he mounted a stool with a bicycle wheel and again in 1915 when he purchased a snow shovel and inscribed it  “in advance of the broken arm, Marcel Duchamp.”In 1917, Duchamp organized the submission of a readymade into the Society of Independent Artists exhibition under the pseudonym, R. Mutt. Entitled Fountain, it consisted of a porcelain urinal that was propped atop a pedestal and signed "R. Mutt 1917".  The work posed a direct challenge to traditional perceptions of fine art, ownership, originality and plagiarism, and was subsequently rejected by the exhibition committee.The New York Dada magazine The Blind Man defended Fountain, claiming "whether Mr.Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance.  He CHOSE it.  He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view—and created a new thought for that object."

The Dada movement continued to play with the appropriation of everyday objects and their combination in collage. Dada works featured deliberate irrationality and the rejection of the prevailing standards of art. Kurt Schwitters shows a similar sensibility in his "merz" works. He constructed parts of these from found objects, and they took the form of large gesamtkunstwerk constructions that are now called installations.

Kurt Schwitters & El Lissitzky MERZ №11 (“Typo Reklame” issue) – 1924; Kurt Schwitters – Man Soll Nicht Asen Mit Phrasen – 1930

Kurt Schwitters – Merzbild 29a – assemblage, 93 x 113 cm, Sprengel Museum

The Surrealists, coming after the Dada movement, also incorporated the use of 'found objects' such as Méret Oppenheim's Object (Luncheon in Fur) (1936) or Salvador Dalí's Lobster Telephone (1936).  These found objects took on new meaning when combined with other unlikely and unsettling objects.

Méret Oppenheim's Object (Luncheon in Fur) (1936)

Salvador Dalí's Lobster Telephone (1936)

In 1938 assemblage artist Joseph Cornell produced what might be considered the first work of film appropriation in his randomly cut and reconstructed film Rose Hobart.

Rose Hobart (1936) by Joseph Cornell

1950–1960: Pop art and realism

Robert Rauschenberg, Rhyme, (1956)

Claes Oldenburg

Detail of Warhol appropriating Botticelli

In the 1950s Robert Rauschenberg used what he dubbed "combines", literally combining readymade objects such as tires or beds, painting, silk-screens, collage, and photography.  Similarly, Jasper Johns, working at the same time as Rauschenberg, incorporated found objects into his work.

A Movie (Bruce Conner, 1958)

In 1958 Bruce Conner produced the influential A Movie in which he recombined existing film clips. In 1958 Raphael Montanez Ortiz produced Cowboy and Indian Film, a seminal appropriation film work.

The Fluxus art movement also utilized appropriation: its members blended different artistic disciplines including visual art, music, and literature. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s they staged "action" events and produced sculptural works featuring unconventional materials.

Featured Image: George Maciunas, Dick Higgins, Wolf Vostell, Benjamin Patterson & Emmett Williams

Bandaged Orchestra during the Fluxus Festival arranged by Yoko Ono at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1965. Photograph: Getty Images

In the early 1960's artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol appropriated images from commercial art and popular culture as well as the techniques of these industries.  Called "pop artists", they saw mass popular culture as the main vernacular culture, shared by all irrespective of education. These artists fully engaged with the ephemera produced from this mass-produced culture, embracing expendability and distancing themselves from the evidence of an artist's hand.

Andy Warhol, 1962, Medium Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 51 cm × 41 cm), Museum of Modern Art. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest, New York. (32 canvas series displayed by year of introduction)

Among the most famous pop artists, Roy Lichtenstein became known for appropriating pictures from comics books with paintings such as Masterpiece (1962) or Drowning Girl (1963) and from famous artists such as Picasso or Matisse.

Roy Lichtenstein, Masterpiece (1962)

Elaine Sturtevant (also known simply as Sturtevant), on the other hand, painted and exhibited perfect replicas of famous works. She replicated Andy Warhol's Flowers in 1965 at the Bianchini Gallery in New York. She trained to reproduce the artist's own technique—to the extent that when Warhol was repeatedly questioned on his technique, he once answered "I don't know. Ask Elaine."

Sturtevant, Warhol Flowers, 1990. Silkscreen, acrylic on canvas. Collection Thaddaeus Ropac, London/Paris/Salzburg

In Europe, a group of artists called the New Realists used objects such as the sculptor Cesar  who compressed cars to create monumental sculptures or the artist Arman who included everyday machine-made objects—ranging from buttons and spoons to automobiles and boxes filled with trash.

Cesar

The German artists Sigmar Polke and his friend Gerhard Richter who defined  “Capitalist Realism,”  offered an ironic critique of consumerism in post-war Germany. They used pre existing photographs and transformed them. Polke's best-known works were his collages of imagery from pop culture and advertising, like his “Supermarkets” scene of super heroes shopping at a grocery store. (To be continue)