Dan Burns-Findlay - my official artist profile -alivenotdead.com

Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein

My early morning routine (e-mail then music blogs then more e-mails listening to music, then surf random crap linked from the blog sites) fired me into this little side story: Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein was a complete rip-off merchant. Why? The below image is one of the (150 odd) comic panels Roy bit [badly!] then sold off as his own work (inset).

And - far from being an art expert - the original images feel a lot more engaging than the copied works. Click the link below and amuse yourself. David Barsalou is the man responsible for undertaking the staggering feat of finding all the original comic frames used by RL.

There is an old saying that 'good artists borrow but great artists steal' ... Does being a great artist mean you also have to be utterly shameless? This is almost as bad as Kanye West.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deconstructing-roy-lichtenstein/46915624/

almost 16 years ago 0 likes 4 comments 0 shares

Sean Tierney

Or Quentin Tarantino...

almost 16 years ago

Dan Burns-Findlay

Good call! Yeah the list is endless. The public needs a website devoted to outing the rippers and honoring the creators.

almost 16 years ago

Dan Burns-Findlay

Yeah ... RL stuff is everywhere. Messed up indeed. I am aware of several dozen [commercially successful] musicians who blatantly rip other people's work and sell it off as their own. I was not so aware of the problem in art circles. The only modification of the original comic frames appears to be a result of RL's inability to render them as skilfully! p.s: and I'm not talking about taking one thing and modifying / sampling it to create something new ... I mean people should be more hesitant of so-called 'genius' when it amounts to nothing more than re-branding someone else's idea with little or no variation.

almost 16 years ago

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Arrive not Dead.

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Member Since: July 6, 2007