Saturday, April 06, 2013

COPY FOR CASH!

I'm taking part in the project/show "Image Duplicator" in London. It's basically a response to the  huge Roy Lichtenstein retrospective that is currently on display at the Tate Modern.
Here's the project outline:

WHERE: A show at the Orbital Gallery, Leicester Square, London
WHEN: May 16th-31st, - a week pre and post the end of the Tate's Lichtenstein show, with a possibility of extending it for another week after.
HIGH CONCEPT: Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein currently has a show on at the Tate. While the public is intimately familiar with his work, what they may be unaware of is how closely many of his images were "appropriated" from comic artists like Irv Novick, Russ Heath, Jack Kirby, John Romita and Joe Kubert, who received no fee or credit.
Is this an act of brilliant recontexturalisation? The elevation of commercial "low" art to "high" art? Art world snobbery? Artistic licence? Cultural annexation? Gallery shortsightedness? Or something else?
This show is a chance for real comic-book artists (and other "commercial artists" - illustrators, designers etc) to ask these kinds of questions and share their views, via their work.
THE PLAN:Every interested comic artist should "re-reappropriate" one of the comic images Lichtenstein used, and rework it, using some of their 'commercial art' drawing skills, to warp and twist it into something interesting and original, and in the process to comment on this type of appropriation.
The IMPORTANT thing to stress is that you'd be going back to the source material and re-reappropriating Coletta, Novick, Kirby et al - NOT copying Lichtenstein


Here's a great collection of comic panels which were copied by Lichtenstein.

Well, I chose to do a variation of the title page of "Run for Love",  from Secret Hearts No. 83, by Tony Abruzzo.  It was the model for Roy Lichtenstein's painting "Drowning Girl".

Here's the original page....



... and this is my take on it.
 


11 comments:

Human Mollusk said...

Thanks Marcel!

alkbazz said...

wow, that's amazingly well copied! congrats!

Dieter VDO said...

Haha! Wonderful!
That dastardly Roy!

Human Mollusk said...

cheers alkbazz - unfortunately, depite the title, there was no cash involved.

thank you dieter!

Human Mollusk said...

"despite", I mean

Marcel Ruijters said...

That is surprising and a bit disappointing, considering the fact it's the Tate Modern that organised it...

Human Mollusk said...

Uhm, dunno but there seems to have been a misunderstanding... The Lichtenstein show was organised by the Tate. The one that I'm in was just set up by some disgruntled comic people (at least as far as I can tell). Sorry if I made it appear to be otherwise.

Human Mollusk said...

And another clarification: I took part in the project, I don't know yet if I'm actually gonna be in the show, since, the way I understand it, there will be some kind of jury deciding about that. But so far the reactions to my contribution have been very positive, so I'm hopeful that they'll accept it.

Unknown said...

re-re-re-re-re-re-copying. But theoretical this is not a copy if it has a new meaning and new elements... rhetorical question. Anyway, good drawing and funny message :>

Human Mollusk said...

thanks! btw, if any of you feel like participating in this - the deadline was extended to the 20th of april.

crippaXXXalmqvist said...

weeell, FuFu..you already know too well how brilliant i think you are! and especially now since i saw the original artwork to this piece yesterday at y'r place..then what can i say more than i think you are probably the most professional of all of us in the EBD-gang..