Steal Like An Artist. Or, Why Copying Is Good For You
In my Saturday painting class we look at different artists and create our own versions of their artwork. Why? Because it’s good for us! We can learn a lot from looking at other artists and copying their work. How did Cezanne use the brush here? What colors did Georgia O’Keeffe use in those hills? It’s an old and honored tradition among artists to copy the “old masters.” Go into any museum and you will likely find an art student faithfully copying something. It’s usually given as an assignment to beginning art students. And for good reason. You will learn so much by walking a mile in another artist’s shoes.
Now let me be clear. You should never copy another artist’s work and pass it off as your own. That’s straight-up plagiarism. But if you do as Picasso did (or just about any other artist I can think of) and create your own version of an old master, then you are golden.
“One of Picasso’s notable characteristics was his need to transform existing works of art, to compose “variations on a theme”, as it were. His point of departure was often simply a reproduction in a book; or even a postcard sent by myself, such as Cranach the Younger’s Portrait of a Woman [1564] in Vienna [collection Kunsthistorisches Museum], which became his first linocut in colour.” (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, ‘Introduction: A Free Man’, in Roland Penrose and John Golding, eds., Picasso 1881/1973, London 1973, pp.8-9.)
https://www.christies.com/
Read a fascinating article on PIcasso’s linocut here.
There are primarily four ways to use copying as a tool:
Copying to imitate and learn. As I mentioned above, a great way to learn how an artist you admire created the work.
Copying to steal and combine. A fun and a good way to take elements from an artist you admire and combine them with your own ideas and work to create something brand new.
Copying to play. Sometimes you just don’t have an idea or you’re not inspired. Sit down with an artist you love and copy their work. See if their inspiration doesn’t rub off on you. I bet it will! We use this idea in my Saturday painting class. It’s soothing to just relax with an artist you love and be inspired by their work.
Copying to plagiarize. Copying another artist’s work and passing it off as your own. Just don’t do it!
Everyone from Austin Kleon in his bestseller “Steal Like An Artist” to Picasso himself who said “I don’t come to borrow, I come to steal” has lauded the benefits of copying.
So the next time you feel a little guilty about copying that gorgeous landscape you admire so much, just remember, everyone does it. No one talks about it but everyone does it.