Since the 1960s a wide range of artists—including Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, and Ellen Gallagher—have made pictures that reference specific works of art and popular culture. Displaying these pieces alongside images of their sources, Exposed! explores artistic strategies of quotation and appropriation. The featured works present various relationships to their sources, from respectful homage to cultural critique. Artists who appropriate the work of others—especially when they do so with photographic fidelity—face harsh criticism and even lawsuits for copyright infringement.
Exposed! includes works of art by Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, Robert Colescott, Grace Hartigan, Ellen Gallagher, and Glenn Ligon, among others. Some pieces are from the Delaware Art Museum ’s collection, and some are on loan from private collections.
A central figure in the story of appropriation art, Richard Prince earned international fame for re-photographing Marlboro advertisements and fashion spreads. He continues to engage with popular imagery, as in his recent nurse paintings, based on the covers of pulp fiction novels. The exhibition features several photographs and paintings by Prince, dating from 1982 through 2006. Painter Grace Hartigan’s vision of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1983), Queen of France and later Queen of England, was inspired by Tom Tierney’s 1982 book of historical paper dolls. In the book and the painting, two versions of Eleanor are presented, one in her regalia and another holding a book, perhaps in reference to her role as a literary patron. New York artist Heather Bennett restages ads from fashion magazines, using herself and clothing and props purchased at thrift stores, in photographs like Untitled (Versace) from 2001.
August 15, 2009 – October 4, 2009
www.delart.org
Image: Untitled (Versace), 2001 Heather Bennett, Digital photograph mounted on wood panel, polymer resin, 60 x 48 x 2 1/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Robert LeBeau, 2007
