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.