When you use multiple sources, it’s called “Research.”
BBC News reports on famous living painter Vettriano’s assertion that he doesn’t copy his paintings out of books.
His spokesman at the Portland Gallery in London, said: “It has been interesting to see the level of media interest in the ‘story’ being run in today’s Daily Record concerning Jack Vettriano’s use of a teaching manual as an aid to some of his early paintings.
“It is widely known that Jack is a self-taught artist and it seems unsurprising that as, in his early painting years he had neither time nor the money at his disposal to work with real life models, that he should use a teaching manual such as this.”
He added: “Vettriano’s skill lies in his ability to create narrative paintings with which the viewer becomes involved.”
At this point I would like to be perfectly blunt and say that I find no narrative content that involves me in “The Singing Butler,” but that’s not really the interesting point here.
The interesting point to me is that I’ve often wondered what happens to a professional artist’s early, learning works when they become popular. So much juvenilia has been published over the years that it reaches a point of sheer overload. Picasso’s scribbles, C.S. Lewis’ notebooks, Shakespeare’s Latin primers – everything that an artist ever laid hands on becomes sheer gold, and that leads to later questions of authenticity and plagiarism.
At this moment, I can walk to the local bookstore and purchase an armload of artist’s reference books. On my own bookshelves I have at least three “Anatomy for the Artist” books from the days when I was convinced that I could actually hold a pencil. These books are supposed to exist for the benefit of those of us who don’t have access to life-drawing classes and studio time and budgets. Using these books, such artists are supposed to be able to perfect their form and learn the basics of their art.
So what happens then when an artist uses the books in such a way and goes on to become famous? Apparently, they get accused of plagiarism. And an argument could be made that such an accusation is accurate – but also that these books are published with the purpose that they be plagiarised. Should an artist be forced to burn all of their juvenilia simply because they once based a painting on a pose from an artist’s reference book?