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Tintoretto's Studio, Woodcut. Source: Peek Inside A Renaissance Art Studio |
Does the assistant concept work the same way in music or dance or theatre? One could argue, no. Unlike a canvas or sculpture, the musician or dancer is "the product" and no one can really take the place of that individual and do the work in the same way. Hence the Milli Vanilli lip-synch scandal or how people get so uptight about the use of body doubles in film. Julia Robert's body shots in Pretty Woman? Not her. Oddly though, no one seemed to mind as much about that as they do in the visual arts world. An interesting discussion. Thanks Wall Street Journal. What do you think?
4 comments:
I saw the sol Lewitt film recently (Wall Drawings) and he created elaborate instructions and plans to be carried out by assistants/students. He was the composer and they were the musicians. You would love the film. There are some cases where it works and some where it just seems lazy/capitalist. I think when we all get up in arms about it we are really expressing our dislike for the art of "ideas" and "concepts".
“Since art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced. Anyone who understands the work of art owns it. We all own the Mona Lisa.” -Sol LeWitt
This also made me think of the Exit Through the Gift Shop documentary. That guy doesn't do any of his own art and never really has from what I understand. He just has ideas and then hires somebody to make it.
Thanks, Anonymous! Exit through the Gift Shop is about Banksy. He started out as a street artist in the UK, painting stencil-based graffiti anonymously, then become so famous that people started ripping down sections of buildings to "own" his work. Same thing happened to Keith Haring and Basquiat and other street artists in NYC in the 80's. Anyway, no one knows the true identity of Banksy,so the question is: does anyone know if he makes his own work or not?...Love his website and in particular the questions section and "the shop": www.banksy.co.uk
That's what the movie starts out as! But halfway through they trade places and it turns into a doc about the guy who started making the doc who decided to become an artist. He is the one who hires people to make art, but never created any of it himself, other than some of the graffiti art he started out doing.
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