Dear friends and colleagues
My father as well as being a clergyman was a serious historian. Having come from a very disadvantaged background he was very proud of having published books on medieval history and of being elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. One day he showed me something he had just read and then showed me something he had published earlier. The author had clearly lifted a whole extended paragraph from my father’s book and not acknowledged it. My father was amused, flattered rather than annoyed. On occasion I too have found chunks of my writing similarly “borrowed”. “Cheeky bugger!” I mutter, laugh and move on.
Since 2009 I have written several times on the Singaporean artist Jane Lee – she is a very focused, innovative artist. As I said in my letter 51 of her recent show at STPI, “Jane’s was a beautiful, inventive exhibition and I was very happy to be involved.” Purple Blues II is a good example of how her work: it is, firstly, playful and, secondly, a precise and meticulous working out of an idea – here the concept of a painting as a very long ribbon of painted canvas.
Recently a journalist from the Singapore newspaper The Straits Times emailed me asking my opinion on an article she was about to publish on how she, and others, believed that Jane’s work was being copied by a younger Filipina artist. She attached several comparative samples of this – see attached. She asked if I knew about this and what legal recourse Jane should take. I mused on this for a few days and then replied suggesting caution. But by this time the article was printed and out – see attached.[1]
The influence of one artist on another is a delicate matter. Monica Delgado has admitted being influenced by Jane. But at what point does this become copying? In what circumstances is copying an acceptable and even creative process? As you know I collect old master prints albeit on a small scale. I am the proud owner of several fakes, imitations and copies of Martin Schongauer, Dürer and Remnbrandt. I even have some pornographic fakes or imitations of Wenceslaus Hollar. Dürer was the first artists to try and copyright his work – to little effect. Have times changed? Would lawyers now enjoy an extended court case about “plagiarism”? You bet! Would it prove anything? Probably not.
‘I am actually really angry inside,’ Jane is quoted as saying. ‘Not only is she imitating my style, she is openly putting it out there.’ Why is she so angry? I haven’t spoken to her and her email is down but I know from working with her that she sees herself as like an inventor. Each of her painting ideas – sheets of acrylic cut into ribbons, squiggles of paint made into complex grids, paint squeezed – is explored exhaustively, just as a scientist explores a hypothesis. Though her work can be sumptuous it is rigorous and never as avowedly decorative as Monica Delgado’s.
What is curiously interesting is how many Filipinos see the article as being nationalistic in a patronizing way. One correspondent on Delgado’s Instagram site claims the article is ‘so full of nationalist pride that it is truly nauseating. First of all the fact that they introduce you firstly as a Pilates teacher and not an artist is insulting… etc.’ A good friend of mine emailed me saying that she thought, ‘the article sounded so nationalistic and protective about being Singaporean.’
So ASEAN isn’t one big happy family. In fact, when you scratch lightly, you realize artists here see themselves as Indonesian or Filipino or Singaporean. It is only the curators and historians, especially in Singapore, who seem to think about “South-East Asian” as an identity. Phew! That’s a big subject – we’ll try and tackle it another week!
I am travelling in Indonesia at the moment but I met with some Filipino artists there so I asked them what they thought. They all seemed to agree that this degree of “copying”, where not just one, but a whole sequence of ideas seemed to be borrowed, was too much. However they all thought the article showed nobody in a good light.[2] One put it that the ‘article did not do either of them good. Monica is scarred for life as an artist, she’s exposed as a lazy copycat and Jane as an insecure, ungenerous successful artist.’ Another thought it could push Monica to fight for her integrity, develop her own artistic personality and become a better artist. Let us hope so.
But the imputation that because Monica also works as a pilates instructor she is an “amateur artist” – or that she is, as another Singaporean correspondent put it, “a pilates instructor passing herself off as an artist,” is unacceptable. I have made a living mainly as a teacher but I do not regard myself, anymore than my father did, as an amateur writer. Nor has anyone sneered at me as such! Most of my artist friends have had to have other jobs to support themselves financially; many also find that this connects them to the real world. An extreme example is the wonderful and too little known Dutch artist Jan Schoonhoven who, out of choice, worked all week at the post office and only made art at weekends. Artists have worked in jobs as diverse as bank managers and dustbin collectors. (The dustbins are good if the collection is early in the day leaving you with nearly a full day in the studio.)
I love a good list. It’s late at night and I want to sleep and one thing that helps me fall sleep is compiling a list, so let’s make a list of artists who did other non-art related jobs at some point:
Paul Gauguin, stockbroker and tarpaulin salesman
Jeffrey Dennis, truck driver
Ian McKeever, professional footballer & dustbin collector
Eduardo Chillida, professional footballer
Fernando Zobel, CEO of family bank
Francis Bacon, male prostitute
Zakii Anwar, Graphic designer
Geraldine Javier, nurse
Vincent van Gogh, preacher
Marcel Duchamp, librarian and French tutor
Kiki Smith…
Urs Graf…
Sinbad the Sailor and Tinbad the Tailor and Jinbad the…
zzzzzz
See you in the morning. Good night!
Tony
- I have only seen the shorter internet version, not the more extended paper version. Intriguingly the internet version on the website of The Strait’s Times has already been taken down – see http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/too-similar for a blank page. ↑
- They also noted that though many artists in Manila felt one commercially highly successful artist had “stolen” ideas, images and devices from their work, no-one had gone to press. Rumour was sufficient. ↑