Critical terms for art history
edited by Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff
Publisher: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c1996.
ISBN: 0226571653 DDC: 701.4 LCC: N34 Edition: (paper : acid-free paper)
Schiff "Originality"
p.107 Modernists have a certain hubris. Often arguing that they lack true precedent, they conceive of themselves (not their principles) as original and seek originality by realising their inner feelings, thoughts and character. Accordingly, romantics and modernists associate artistic authenticity with an expressive manner so autonomous that it must also appear innovative, in opposition to the value a classicist might locate in selective repetition. The lesson is this: classics repeat; moderns should not, except when re-iteraring what belongs to each one of them alone, their personal style.
p.108
To seek originality by stressing one´s deviation from others has consequences in the social realm, it encourages a certain personal competition which in turn has economic implications. Artists sell their unique difference, but not always easily. Modernists saw the irony of struggling for market recognition in a world ruled by fashion, which itself follows a principle of uniqueness of a peculiar kind: fashion is novelty produced in multiple and multiauthored edition.
So, do I need to copy others in my work? Somewhere along the line, the originality that I see in my work (Abstract Heads, clearly; and when I find a specific "language" the Mies series too) needs to be replicated, copied, fashioned, editioned.
