The Art of Quotation

An astounding number of contemporary
artists refer to artworks from the past. This is
primarily accomplished using the art quote,
an artistic medium fulfilling different functions
since the beginning of the Avant-garde.
While the Dadaists used the art quote as
a means of provocation, the Pop Artists to
overcome Abstract Expressionism and the
Appropriation Artists to address the issue of
originality, the question remains to be answered
how today’s artists make use of the
art quote?

This thesis analyses certain types
of forms and themes of the art quote in contemporary art. It thereby draws upon empirically collected data: art quotes created
between 1990 and 2010 by contemporary
artists from all continents have been categorised
and evaluated in order to identify
certain patterns of representation. It could
be ascertained that in most cases one of the
following strategies of representation comes
in use: the composition, motive or figure of
the artwork being referred to is replaced
with something else (strategy of substitution),
something is added or taken away from
the quoted artwork (strategy of addition or
subtraction), it can be multiplied, divided
or combined with references to other artworks
(strategy of multiplication, division or
combination). This research examines these
six strategies of representation on the basis
of selected examples and offers, for the
first time, a method for the systematic categorisation
of the art quote phenomenon.

Furthermore, this analysis emphasises the
global aspect of quotation by considering
the work of international artists mainly referring
to a Western European art canon.