There will never be another Andy

paolozzi

I really enjoyed Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow’s take on the Pop Exhibit at London’s National Portrait Gallery. He brings up the idea that it’s hard to look at pop art and not wonder how anyone could do anything like that with the present copyright laws. I’ve thought the same thing ? as soon as I were to create millions of apples growing from a wild tree in some yuppie college town, you know, hypothetically, to make a statement of sorts, Jobs would be all over that with lawsuits.

So what’s the message of the show? Is it a celebration of remix culture, revelling in the endless possibilities opened up by appropriating and reusing images without permission?

Or is it the epitaph on the tombstone of the sweet days before the UN set up the World Intellectual Property Organization and the ensuing mania for turning everything that can be sensed and recorded into someone’s property?

It’s no wonder that we’re the Youtube generation. Of course we are, we necessarily have to be. Even then, though, advertisements and pop cultural icons are so deeply embedded in our daily lives, it wouldn’t be surprising to have to go around copyright issues even with background signs or home decor. Which might completely defeat the idea of being able to do anything original with all the signs we’re so exposed to, as Doctorow put it, “unless you could somehow contrive to get a shot of Leicester Square without any writing, logos, architectural facades or images in it.”

Photo of “Meet the People from ten collages of BUNK!” - Eduardo Paolozzi. Courtesy of npg.org.uk

I request a bequest

Heading to London? Me neither. But, if I were, I’d be sure to stop by the National Gallery and Tate Modern just to check out some new lovelies, collectively worth ?100m. No big deal.

after the bath???? rousseau

My favorite is “After the Bath,” an 1896 painting by Degas (I couldn’t find a photo so instead I included a picture entitled “After the Bath” from Google images). Although the Rousseau portrait of Joseph Brummer is pretty wonderful, too. The Guardian’s Maev Kennedy called it “endearing,” which is actually one of my favorite adjectives of all time. Little known fact.