Assignment three:

Re-appropriating images

Part 1 “String Of Puppies”

By Sheery D’Ancona

In Art Roger’s original photograph, a man and a woman are holding a total of 8 puppies in their laps towards the camera. An age gap is notable since the man has light graying hair while the lady appears younger.  Similarity of  the smiles and facial features indicates the two are relatives or family members, it is obvious to see they are very happy. In the background, a rustic, wooden fence hints the image was taken on a farm, or location away from the city. The puppies seem to be purebred Alsatians, or German Shepherd dogs, all looking healthy and well cared for. The photo has nice light shadow contrast and clear definition.

The first notable communicative elements are the smiles upon the faces, it seems to signify joy and closeness. Another sign might be the arms embracing the puppies lovingly, likely to signify parental care, family is signified..

The image’s visual effect involves emotional stimulus: As 1* Heather Brady explains in her National Geographic article, looking at cute puppies triggers a biochemical reaction known as “baby schema” or cuddling effect, caused by secretion of oxytocin and dopamine in our brains that leads to a sensation of happiness, love and adoration.,

The puppies are signifiers of babies, while parenting is signified here, largely in association with happy family moments and life’s simple pleasures. “

I was introduced to the image online, while researching appropriation art and images, its widely prevalent in online art articles and creative appropriation discussions, which I will be addressing in this text. It was produced by Art Rogers in 1980, he was commissioned by James Scanlon to take photos of his German shepherd pups. Scanlon later said, 2*”I specifically commissioned Art so that the photograph would have his genius — his special ‘magic’ — and he provided it.” Rogers spent multiple hours finding the perfect location, light catching and position for the Scanlons and pups. Additionally, he worked tediously during the processing, selecting and printing the image. He said “’Puppies’ was one of my best images. It has a beautiful, creamy soft but crisp light . . . I wanted the puppies to look real cute, and they are cute.” Both Rogers and the Scanlons were pleased and recognized the photo’s artistic value. Rogers had published and exhibited his image, signed prints were sold and a reproduction deal was signed in 1984, thus the image became both affordable and widely accessible by being printed on postcards.

As we look at Jeff Koons re-appropriated work,  ‘String of Puppies’ we note an identical scene of man, woman holding 8 puppies. Yet it feels very different from the original, the textures seem smooth, glossy.The faces cannot be read as happy or proud, simply vacant somewhat like mannequins.The puppies are there, but they’re no longer cute but seem clownish and slightly ridiculous due to the blue color and exaggerated nose features. There are little daisies in the man and woman’s hair.

The image leaves an unnatural, uneasy feeling as we see the subjects, but can’t emotionally connect as we easily do with the original photograph. It seems to either highlight or ridicule our feelings, by freezing the moment and preserving it under thick layers of color and gloss.

Koons first saw the original photograph on a postcard he bought during a trip to Europe. He was inspired and commissioned a wooden sculpture of the image from Italian craftsmen, who’s ordinary work is reserved to the carving of painted wooden religious icons.

It’s important to acknowledge that the image is a part of his 1988 ‘Banality show’ – a collection of 20 large, painted wood and porcelain sculptures whose theme was a parody and celebration of everyday objects, banality and kitsch art. The show featured many re-appropriated images of celebrities, animals and characters representing 20th century visual pop culture, more examples are Michael Jackson with Bubbles the chimp and Jayne Mansfield with Pink Panther.

As Koons explained his use of appropriated images in his art: *3“When the artist finishes his work, the meaning of the original object has been extracted and an entirely new meaning has set in its place”. Additionally, his quotes in the *4 Tate article reveal that his work was meant to question and explore the definition of ‘high art’ by placing images borrowed from ‘mass popular culture’ into spaces and audiences traditionally reserved for ‘high culture’: “I was telling the bourgeois to embrace the thing that it likes. Don’t divorce yourself from your true being, embrace it. Don’t try to erase it because you’re in some social standing now and you’re ambitious and you’re trying to become some upper class.”

Comparing the similar compositional elements 5*, which is probably the most significant modality for this assignment, the two images are linked through visual structure, despite the newer art work being essentially 3 dimensional and of different genre, it was clearly meant to mimic the original image and photographer’s viewing point. As Koons identified, both could be interpreted as forms of Kitsch art, potentially fitting into a grandmother’s collection of porcelain dolls and travel souvenirs.

On the other hand, there are substantial differences in both the technical and social modalities: Rogers’ intention is straightforward and genuine, he is using professional skill in order to capture the moment’s emotional perspective. While Koons means to take that image of wholesome family values, strip its humanity and emotion and transform it into a cultural icon.

The images are most famously connected in relevance to Art Rogers vs. Jeff Koons legal case.  4* ‘If the Copy Is an Artwork, Then What’s the Original?‘ Randy Kennedy asks in a New York Times article on appropriation in art. 

In the legal context, “Puppies” strongly affected both visual culture and the art world by  establishing new boundarie to creative fair use. Holding artists liable for creative infringement in art appropriation, meant recognizing creative and financial rights of professional artists whose work was previously used without their knowledge or consent.

The case could be extended into a comparison between the ‘old Vs next new’ in art and pop culture, the old represented here by Americana professional photography as Art Rogers created his image through ‘good old’ hard work and artistic skills, focus points were on visual aesthetics, nostalgia and wholesome family values. This image is understood by everyone, accessible and affordable through daily objects such as postcards.

Koons’ new image ‘String of puppies’ is a clever piece of pop art, black and white classic turned into a colorful cultural icon. like MTV’s ”Video Killed The Radio Star”. It is intentionally insolent, using compositions borrowed from other artists, money to commission work as opposed to producing it and fame to sell it. Since the image was brought into the ‘High End’ gallery environment ,it managed to fetch millions in collector sales along with other pieces of the ‘Banality’ show.

To conclude, despite Koons getting criticised and sued for infringement, I can definitely appreciate his sassy reproduction. Both images are wonderful and make good examples of ways new life and meaning can be birthed by conceptual re-appropriation in art.

References and bibliography:

1. National Geographic – This Is Your Brain on Puppy Pictures, by Heather Brady, 2017
2. Design Observer – Art Rogers Vs Jeff Koons, James Traub Essay, 2001
3. Copyright Reform Act of 1993, Hearings ebook
4. Tate: Jeff Koons: Banality, Decadence and Easyfun 
5. Visual Methodologies, by Gillian Rose, 2001, figure 1.4 
6. “If the Copy Is an Artwork, Then What’s the Original?” by Randy Kennedy, New York Times, 2003.
7. Rogers Vs Koons Wiki
8. Room Six: Territories in: Dean, T. & Millar, J. (2005) Place. London: Thames & Hudson.

Part 2, Unit Reflection

I always classified myself as a visual thinker,therefore, found this unit, both constructive and enjoyable. I feel that the unit’s learning journey through different aspects of visual communication has strengthened my skill of identifying messages and meaning within visual content. This was developed both through completing course work as well as the books suggested by my tutor on methods of visual analysis, such as Visual Methodologies, by Gillian Rose. I plan to continue further by enrolling with OCA’s illustration course next.

I found the task of image example research particularly interesting for the fact that seeking images often leads to new exploration of unexpected places, genres and time periods, for example looking up different visual examples for project 1,E1, opened an entire world of vintage ads and hand made posters designs such as the Soviet posters and Feminist 70s designs. There’s charm found in the directness of visual messages in soviet graphics, I noticed the directness of Soviet messages captured the Attention of Ross Sinclair in 8.‘Real Life and How to Live it’

Collage artist research point was probably my favorite part of the unit. I simply loved how sharp and political collage works can be, which inspired me to extend the exercise by combining use of collage in my own future artwork. I made a random discovery during research for film poster exercise. I found a frame in the film, which included a collage of staring eyes. Given the location and timeline (1927), I realized Bouquet of eyes by Hannah Höch from 1930 might have been inspired by the film image. 

My assignment preparation and research experience was quite straight forward this time.  My image selection process was by far less time consuming than finding the suitable book snippet for assignment 2 and I feel thankful for that. Reading and research additionally taught me that image appropriation exposes artists to serious infringement / rights issues and needs to be carefully acknowledged. 

I’m encountering my first issues on the course: time is not on my side: On top of the existing slowdown caused by homeschooling my children during the 5 month Covid19 school closure, I spent far too long on exploration and image research for this unit, Therefore, finding myself several weeks behind my study schedule. 

I feel that timeframes and deadlines were not sufficiently explained or discussed at the beginning of my course. From my introduction materials, my understanding was timeframes are flexible and extensions are possible, while I have now learned that flexibility is limited to course duration and not beyond it.Although now slightly worried that deadline stress would drain the joy out of learning and complicate family care obligations and other art projects.I have really enjoyed my studies with the OCA so far and I would certainly continue working, hopefully towards a timely assessment.