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Appropriation in Postmodernism: Analyzing Andy Warhol and Sherrie Levine

Dramisino, Laura
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Abstract
The 20th century is a historical period dominated by events that eventually drastically changed the path of history and the world itself. Considered as the “brief century”, it is characterized by its fast changes due to technological innovations and the evolution on political-economical assets1. If cultural products have always been strongly influenced by the historical environment in which they develop, art, in the 20th century, was particularly influenced by the new political systems and social changes which ended up giving birth to a large amount of movements and styles. Generally, the century can be split into two major cultural tendencies, even if they each involved several different styles: modernism (indicating the first half of the 20th century), and postmodernism (beginning from the second half). The former was particularly enthusiast of the industrial development focusing on the research of new imagery, materials, and technique which could create artworks reflecting the new hope of modern society. Postmodernism, instead, developed as reaction to Modernism. The artworks reflect a new skeptic vision of the world about the previously praised universal truths and objective reality3. This artistic approach was particularly relevant for the large amount of works based on the phenomenon of Appropriation. Even though the act of appropriating pre-existing styles, images, techniques has always occurred in art history, the past century stressed this tendency further so that the concept of originality and authenticity of the work of art has been strongly threatened. In this thesis, I will explore the meaning and phenomenon of Appropriation. I will analyze how it acted out during 20th century art, focusing on its postmodernist tendency, and how it radically changed the concept of originality and authorship. Through the analysis of two artists, the thesis will clarify the two major fields in which Appropriation stands: how Appropriation art defines the act of translating into artworks images coming from the everyday life and culture, and how it uses the reproduction of an existing work of art which is be modified or not in order to confer a totally new contemporary meaning. Andy Warhol and Sherrie Levine are among the symbols of the appropriative impulse. Studying their works will allow to identify how Appropriation is possible to understand, and why this problematic issue has actually gained great importance in art history. I will also explore the theme of authenticity, questioning the idea of aura. In other words: if these contemporary works are inspired by the mass media culture of the present, or quote masterpieces and styles of the past how has their “aura” and value changed? Through a historical and visual study of these artists, the phenomenon of the issue of authenticity will finally be investigated. The main aim of the thesis is answering to three research questions: - what Appropriation actually means, and how it applies to contemporary art; - how Postmodernist artists exploited iconic images coming from their everyday, and their final aim; - how Postmodernist artists interpreted past and contemporary works and their final aim; - how scholars and critics interpreted this common tendency in contemporary art.
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Thesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Enrepreneurship)--John Cabot University, Spring 2018.
Date
2018
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Postmodernism, Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, Sherrie Levine
Citation
Dramisino, Laura. "Appropriation in Postmodernism: Analyzing Andy Warhol and Sherrie Levine". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2018.
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