Artist's Copy: Jana Anderson

A small digital image on the internet!

Picasso once said that, “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.” While I agree with the intent of this statement that a true artist is inspired by the work of others and makes it their own, making copies after famous artists has been a common practice throughout the history of art. I have done this in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, but being in these European museums I feel closer to the history, culture, and landscape that inspired many of the artists.

The works of art I’ve studied and admire are right here in front of me at places such as the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, and National Gallery. Actually sitting before pieces of art by famous artists such as Blake, Turner, Constable, and Picasso, I feel like I can get to know them in more detail – how the artist worked, what the color palette looks like in person, and I can actually experience the size and power of each piece. Some of the paintings are provocative and ever changing in ways one could never discover by viewing a small digital image on the Internet. They were meant to be experienced. They were meant to be looked at. I could spend days in these London museums and keep discovering new things about these works of art. They grow and change with the viewer, and I feel privileged to be one of the thousands of visitors to pass through and take the time to truly look.

Since I'm visiting these museums as a tourist, I feel obligated to experience everything.  Taking it all in at an appropriate pace is impossible, but I find myself rushing through to see as much as I can. When I did take a little extra time to sit in front of some of these works of art and make copies, both my eyes and mind slowed down and I was able to more carefully observe holistically.  Although I felt like a rushed tourist in London, I did make a copy of a Turner drawing and one of a Picasso painting.  It would probably be stimulating to take more than half an hour to do this, but even with the quick sketches I did, I feel like I've begun to really know these works of art. I think art history is half reading history and half looking at and taking in the power of an image. At times, observation might be worth even more than half. It allows for an understanding of art through the eyes of the artist, not the eyes of the art historian or researcher.

Copy or Thievery?

In London I made copies after famous works of art, but I think the act of study and observation that comes from this is valuable despite Picasso’s harsh words. However, my experience of these works of art were brand new to me, and ultimately, I view the sketches that came out of this as recording my own experience of the work as opposed to copying it. Upon coming back to York after this exhilarating weekend, I’ve continued working on drawings of the Minster, and I’ve found that while drawing this building I take a similar approach of observation and careful study as when doing copies of Picasso or Turner. The careful observation that occurs when taking in a masterpiece is the same approach whether the masterpiece is a work of art, architecture, or an existing landscape or figure from life. In every genre I am trying to record what I see and how I experience the world. Picasso may classify this is stealing, but whatever you want to call it, I do agree that this defines true art. Pure copying doesn’t require thought or reflection, but “stealing” or in other words, inspiration, combines observation, reflection, and personal experience to produce something truly creative. The “copies” I did fit the definition of an artist’s impression of a visual experience. So by this idea, even my quickly done sketch after Picasso was an original record of an experience as opposed to a direct copy. In this way, maybe my “copies” don’t make me a bad artist by Picasso’s standards, but rather one artist inspired by another’s work.

More observations and reflections on the York experience by Jana are available on her own blog, found here.