How hard is it for contemporary art to refuse plagiarism?

In the creation of Chinese painting, copying ancient classics is a tradition, and creating on this basis, even if the form and style are very close, will generally not be criticized; In the creation of realistic oil paintings, the picture styles are similar and will not cause criticism; However, in contemporary artistic creation characterized by ideas, if a large number of related elements and concepts are quoted, it is suspected of plagiarism. Today, with the emphasis on originality and innovation, with the growth of artistic creation team, a large number of works with similar styles and similar themes are flooding, which makes us constantly face an old problem-learning from or copying, and where is the boundary between the two? In addition, how to treat the creative way of completely borrowing ready-made products or other ready-made elements in contemporary art? How to effectively ensure the originality of all kinds of exhibition works? How to protect the original spirit of young artists and promote artistic creation?

Reference or plagiarism

In 20 15, the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art held an exhibition entitled "Copyleft: China's Misappropriation Art", which expanded and transformed the theory of "Misappropriation Art" from the West, and held that China's Misappropriation Art includes at least three phenomena: reproduction related to China's artistic tradition; Misappropriation related to western modern and contemporary art; Shanzhai related to current social phenomena. Plagiarism, misappropriation and plagiarism are three different ways and realms for reference. As far as contemporary art is concerned, there are many successful cases of misappropriating western art. Zhang Xiaogang's Portrait of a Big Family is reminiscent of Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte. Zhang Huan's comprehensive materials can find the shadow of German neo-expressionist painter Anselmus Kiefer; There is also the relationship between Cai Guoqiang's installation "Hit the Wall" exhibited at the Guggenheim Art Museum in Berlin in 2006 and the work "Wolf" by Boyce 1969, Liu Xiaodong and Lucian Freud, who is regarded as the greatest contemporary British painter, and so on.

Sadly, the western contemporary art that China artists try their best to imitate is not a pure land. American pop artist Jeff? Quince was accused of plagiarism several times; Tim Olson Gallery in Australia terminated the work agency of Ben Ali, a famous photographer in Sydney, and cancelled the upcoming exhibition because the latter used pictures taken by others to create without authorization. In Bob Dylan's exhibition, there are several images from photographic works; Japanese artist Tian was found to have copied several oil paintings by Italian artist Alberto Sugi, and his art prize in 2005 was withdrawn by the cultural department of the Japanese government. ...

Yin Shuangxi, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, also mentioned another phenomenon-the artist's self-plagiarism. In today's relaxed creative environment and comprehensive information enjoyment channels, some well-known artists have found their own successful style patterns and made repeated productions to meet the needs of capital. Their works for more than ten years have no breakthrough and innovation, and they all look the same. Strolling through today's contemporary art exhibition, we can still see many works of simple collage (collage of different background elements, combined into another work) and language conversion (such as converting words into QR codes). This old and single artistic creation technique not only caused a waste of resources, but also caused a bubble in the art market. This kind of imitation is a tradition and inertia, and it is also a phenomenon worthy of reflection and attention in the art world.

It is not uncommon for contemporary young artists to have disputes caused by "borrowing" and "copying". At the 7th China Sports Art Exhibition in Jinan, Li Yueliang's oil painting "When I was a Child" was almost the same as Hu Wugong's "Push-ups" filmed in 1990s, except that the silver salt was replaced by pigment, and the photos were cloned from paintings. In June this year, at the "Contemporary Art Exhibition of Chinese Dream" hosted by a website, the painter Liu was accused of copying the oil painting "If Dreams" by the young artist He Chengdong, and signed it for exhibition without any change or re-creation, and published it in the exhibition preview of the website. In an exhibition this summer, there was also an incident in which the exhibited works were suspected of copying others' graduation creations.

Reference or plagiarism, how to define the boundary between them?

Originality is more reflected in ideas.

Kandinsky gave a clear definition of "imitation" in On Form: "An artist who lacks talent-that is, an artist who lacks the inner pursuit of art-uses the forms created by others for his own use and confuses the public." Teuto Heizer, a German art historian, mentioned in his treatise On Great Works of Art that the works of art imitators are always more "extreme, restless, exaggerated, provocative and dazzling" than the original except for their "superficial" similarity. In the interview, the reporter found that most artists and critics believe that there is no clear and unified standard to define the difference between plagiarism and borrowing, and more needs to be analyzed and identified according to specific works.

Copying is a very important creative method in China ancient traditional painting, and its essence is reference. Painters in Ming and Qing Dynasties imitated and copied many paintings of the ancients. They choose to experience and sublimate their state of mind in this way because they think that traditional art has a traditional paradigm and learning paradigm is their lifelong pursuit. This is the framework of traditional learning, inheritance and personal creation norms formed under the concept at that time.

Li Lei, deputy director of the China Art Palace, believes that compared with 20 or 30 years ago, the originality of artistic works is more valued and emphasized today. On the one hand, the creativity of art itself is emphasized in today's cultural thinking concept. On the other hand, the commercialization and marketization of works of art are based on ensuring the originality of art, which will also involve the protection of intellectual property rights.

Yu Yang, an associate professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, said that since the 20th century, the originality of ideas has always been regarded as the main value standard of works of art, and the main presentation category of contemporary art is actually the presentation of ideas. Many contemporary works of art have precedents for drawing lessons from other works, some of which are parody and misappropriation. For example, some political pop works parody the original classic image, and there is still a difference between this misappropriation and reference. In contemporary art, borrowing existing products to create is actually a renewal and subversion of ideas and a reflection on painting itself.

With regard to the definition of originality of contemporary art, many scholars have basically the same view: the originality of contemporary art is not reflected in the material and schema of the work, but in the thought. Contemporary artists often have unique ideas or practices to borrow, misappropriate and transform, or express meaningful things in a new way, which is a very important feature of contemporary art. As we all know, Picasso's cubist style is influenced by Cezanne's later works, and his sculptures are directly related to indigenous sculptures in Africa. However, there is an essential difference between actively learning the experience of predecessors and turning it into the driving force of personal innovation, and stealing other people's ideas as a shortcut to fame and fortune. Kandinsky said in On Form: "If an artist uses a form created by others to express his inner impulse and experience, that is, if this borrowing conforms to his inner truth, then he has every right to do so."

In fact, there are relevant regulations in our country's laws against the increasingly rampant plagiarism. In Article 47 of the Copyright Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), there are clear provisions and punishment principles for many infringements, but it is difficult to really implement them in the actual implementation process. The fundamental reason is that there is no rigid standard for the boundary between plagiarism and reference, only subjective judgment. Mo Fan, a young artist, believes that artistic creation itself is an extremely free individual behavior. Just like the ready-made art mentioned above, it focuses on the elaboration of ideas, not the object itself. Whether a work is suspected of plagiarism can probably be judged from the similarity of the physical object (concept) of the work, as well as the sketches, words, images provided by both parties, especially the time of creation.

Tribe Hu creativity

The artistic ecology can be better and better.

As far as the present situation of contemporary art in China is concerned, although there are no very effective methods in a short time, there is still a lot of room for improvement from the perspective of encouraging originality and rejecting plagiarism. Yu Yang said that young artists have more experience in the Academy of Fine Arts, so we should pay more attention to the guidance of higher art colleges in teaching concepts. If artistic creation leaves originality, it will lead to the confusion of value standards, so plagiarism and copying with the wind should be severely criticized. But at the same time, we should also realize that reference is the only way for artistic innovation, and limited reference on the basis of originality is allowed and should be properly tolerated. In this regard, he put forward constructive and concrete measures, that is, the art world can set up some awards to encourage originality, which can be set up separately from other awards to reward those works with innovative and unique ideas. Perhaps their artistic quality is not the highest, but the original spirit embodied in the process of creating works is worthy of concern and encouragement. I hope that artists can learn from everyone's style and pattern, have long-term vision and planning, and cherish and carry forward their original thinking. Gu Chengfeng, a professor at Nanjing Art Institute, believes that the originality of contemporary art is mainly reflected in ideas and concepts. It is necessary to distinguish between conceptual originality and image originality. When image borrowing and misappropriation are inevitable, we should pay more attention to encouraging concept originality.

In addition, in order to avoid unnecessary disputes, in the specific exhibition operation level, it can also be avoided through curators, academic experts and other links. "As a curator, you must have profound professionalism, broad vision and have seen a lot of works of art, especially works of large-scale exhibitions." Gao Peng, curator of Today Art Museum, said that in recent years, Today Art Museum has held many exhibitions about young artists. In order to encourage originality, the museum proposes that works must be related to personal growth experiences. Because different experiences and different lives will lead to different understandings, the works are directly related to the artist's environment. These experiences will always be original and unrepeatable, and their works will receive more attention from everyone. He believes that an artist is the most vital and original as long as he truly expresses his environment and inner experience.

Wang, director of the Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, said that when selecting works or cooperating with artists, many exhibitions will emphasize that "works cannot involve plagiarism or copyright disputes with other people's works" and will also have academic judgments. However, if some works are still controversial, it is inappropriate to judge plagiarism rashly based on personal words, so there is still room for discussion. As a young artist, Mo Fan has a deeper understanding. "The creative process of works of art is the process that artists discover, refine, sublimate and put into practice in their lives. Without this process, the creation will be dull and you can't create touching works. Personal creative thinking is always the main body, and it is also the key for artists to form their own style and characteristics. Creation often involves reference, but reference must not be plagiarism. " Only by encouraging originality can our artistic ecology get better and better.