Copies of Copies

Since I’ve talked in class about how we would not have any idea of some Greek sculpture if it were not for the Roman copies, I will not go there. However, the Practices of Looking authors barely touch on “value” and originality and copies. I’m not so sure that the first pulling of a silkscreen is more important than a later; I remember my lithography professor explaining that the value is in the number of the prints so it doesn’t matter if you have print 1/2000 or 1999/2000, but rather that there are no more than 2000 prints. The first prints are usually designated as artist proofs, and those are tricky because you don’t know how many of those are out there.

The authors mention that an “original” bronze “required casting the true original the work in clay, from a plaster mold” (190). Hm. You can do it that way (my one and only cast sculpture—a relief using the Soloflex ad that was highly popular at the time—was, but it was also cast in a polyresin, not bronze). However, all of the bronze sculptures poured in the art department used the lost wax method—in theory, you can make as many sculptures as you pull wax copies from the mold . Actually, I’m not sure if casting bronze from the clay would work, unless the sculpture is solid bronze which would be very expensive and VERY heavy. With the lost wax method, the second mold that is made (the first one is for the wax, which you can then alter before you pour the bronze) allows for the bronze sculpture to be hollow (think of hollow chocolate Easter bunnies), so that it weighs less and uses less bronze (so less expensive).

The other thing not mentioned is that certain copies of originals, usually sanctioned by the museum that owns the original, also have certain value that increases over time. Certain artists are gaining cache in the art world for their “copies” (not “forgeries”—those are done with the intent to deceive—these are opening marked as copies) (this info comes from a newscast on PBS years ago); also, some museum-associated organizations, such as the Museo d’Arte e Scienza in Milan advocate that copies honestly made by students (copying art work is a standard part of an artist’s training) should not be dismissed as mere “copies.”

However, making copies of paintings and sculptures by hand is very different than taking a photograph of a photograph, that is more akin to photocopying (note I didn't use "Xerox"--I wish I could find the graveyard of genericized marks ad Xerox Corporation ran years ago; it was really clever.) and there is little artistic skill in that.