Exhibition of paintings by the famous musician Bob Dylan at the Gagosian Gallery has not been without scandal: it seems that some images are presented as unique, in fact, been borrowed from Dylan photographs of other authors

for the legendary rock musician, poet, actor and artist Bob Dylan (Bob Dylan) rather long stretches apropriatora glory. In 2006, the musician pointed out that the lyrics in his album «Modern Times» very reminiscent of the poem by Henry Timroda, who wrote about the American Civil War and died in 1867. A lyrics Album «Love and Theft» resonate with scenes of gangster novel "Confessions of Yakuza," a Japanese writer Junichi Saga (Junichi Saga). And in 2009, auction house Christie's said that the poem ostensibly written by Dylan, which was almost not allowed to go under the hammer, in fact, is replete with borrowings from a song by country music singer Hank Snow (Hank Snow). Dylan has repeatedly evaded the answer to the statements of critics and scholars who tried to bring it to pure water.

And now a new debate has caused Dylan exhibition of paintings opened at the Gagosian Gallery in the Upper East Side . In the announcement of the project entitled "The Asian series," it was said that this collection is a "visual diary" of Mr. Dylan's traveling "in Japan, China, Vietnam and Korea," filled with "images of people, street scenes, architecture and landscapes of the first hands. " The exhibition comprises 18 paintings.

However, since the opening of the exhibition September 20, many fans and critics have wondered: are many of the works of these travel sketches, or they were based on well-known photographs that have been made not Dylan?

Online Expecting Rain , dedicated to the works of Dylan, was given eloquent testimony in favor of apropriatsionnoy version. One user Okinawa Soba (Okinawa Soba) said that as many as six pictures were copied from Dylan's pictures that he posted on Okinawa filehosting Flickr. Their originals are stored in his personal collection. Among the works borrowed Mr. Soba described, for example, a photograph of James Rikaltona (James Ricalton) in 1900, representing the Manchurian bride and groom in Beijing shot about 1880 with Japanese and loaded with horse against the backdrop of Mount Fuji, as well as the photo channel in 1923 in Canton ( Guangzhou) shall be filled boats. And Dylan has called the work with the channel "Shanghai", while in fact the photo was taken in Canton.

Poster Exhibition of Bob Dylan «Asian Series" at the Gagosian Gallery Source: flickr.com

Photo 1923 Channel in Canton (Guangzhou) Source: flickr.com

However, using these three pictures, Dylan has not violated any laws, because these photos are public domain. However, the same can not be said of other works that the artist borrowed.

At least four photographs are protected by copyright laws. Two are owned by the photo agency Magnum Photos. Among them is a picture by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1948 with the merchant and the eunuch, who served at the court of Empress Dowager Cixi. The second photo with a pair of Magnum smokers yakuza was made by Bruce Gildenom (Bruce Gilden) in 1998.

Above: Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1948 Below: picture of Bob Dylan's" Trading » Source: artinfo.com < /td>

Another picture of Dylan's "Opium", which was chosen as a poster at the Gagosian Gallery website, found the smallest details similar with the picture, "Woman, smoking opium," the photographer beginning of XX century Bussy Leon (Léon Busy). The copyright for this work since 2008 has the French Museum of Alberta Kahn.

And, finally, a "coincidence" was found by Michael Gray (Michael Gray): picture of the "Asian Series" by Bob Dylan with three boys playing on the sidewalk in a board game, repeats similar photo taken Dmitri Kessel (Dmitri Kessel) for the magazine LIFE. copyrighted This shot has a log file.

Left: Bob Dylan Opium. 2009 Right: LEON Bussy woman smoking opium. 1915 Source: artinfo.com

Left: picture of Bob Dylan's" Asian Series » Right: Photo by Dmitry Kessel for the magazine LIFE Source: artinfo.com

Michael Gray, whose blog «Bob Dylan Encyclopedia »is devoted exclusively to works of Dylan, commented on his discovery:" The most amazing thing is that photography is not just inspired Dylan to write the picture: he took a snapshot of the photographer and completely copied. He did not draw this group into a different perspective, and did not change the fact that is located on the edges of the image. He repeated everything as accurately as possible. This could be quite an intriguing game with the fans, if it were not so few gifted in painting technique. This may not be plagiarism, but it almost certainly literal copying ».

In response to the attacks on the exhibition of the gallery Gagosian said on Monday that:" Although the composition of some paintings by Bob Dylan is based on a variety of sources, including archival, historical images, but liveliness and freshness of these works comes from the colors and textures, peeped into everyday scenes of the artist during his travels. "Mr. Dylan has not yet commented on these" coincidences "and his representative declined to comment on the show in Gagosyane.

Most loyal fans to the singer's site Expecting Rain react to everything going on is less critical. One of them even wrote that "the 'quote' or 'borrowing' - this is how the old world techniques in poetry, music and fine arts. It is not necessary to be a fan of this, but such borrowing is often a part of the creative process ».

here at a time to remember that the art has long been a notion of" apropriatsionizm "(or Appropriation Art), which came into circulation in the early 1980s with the release of the arena by such artists as Richard Prince (Richard Prince) and Sherry Levine (Sherrie Levine). These authors freely use in their work products created by other artists, often ignoring copyrights. Learn more about artist apropriatorah can read the article AI «Appropriation Art: anonymous struggle with the Stars» . < /p>

Prepared Onuchina Maria, AI

Source: artinvestment.ru