Talking about “The Notions of Originality” is a difficult task, mainly as it is such a wide topic. Can something ever be original? Or will we forever be stuck in a cycle where art will always be “paying homage to...” or “based on the work of…”? I hoped this lecture would answer its own questions, but it has also left many more for me to explore on my own.
There are many works of art that have become popular inspiration for artists throughout the centuries after the original was created, one of these pieces that came up in this particular lecture was Diego de Silva Velazquez’s “Las Meninas” this piece is considerably well known, and has been re-interpreted by a number of artists – most famously by Picasso; his piece, by the same name, is obviously paying homage to the original as the layout and the shapes are very similar – but in Picasso’s style he has deconstructed the painting and seems to have worked with what he found to create something of his own. In its own right I think that Picasso has made this piece original, because it is the only one of its kind in his particular style of painting. I personally don’t think that because an artist uses images or ideas from another piece, that their work isn’t original.
For the second part I thought to consider whether recontextualised ideas can be contemporary, and over the course of this particular lecture I began to think that yes, they could be contemporary. But then I began to think about the possibility that by recontextualising an idea we take away the intrigue and excitement that comes with creating a new idea, and that this can lead to a lack of passion for the work – which I believe would be visible to the viewer. However, even though I am pretty certain that recontextualised ideas can’t be contemporary, there is an aspect of me that can’t help thinking that maybe there is a way to reconsider a concept and create something new and original.A particular theme that has been recontextualised over the centuries is the story of Adam and Eve; the earliest depiction of this scene is Masaccio’s “Expulsion from the Garden of Eden” (1472), then in the 1980s Ron O’Donnel created “Expulsion” which although follows the same idea, is a much more contemporary and surreal finished image.
