A Munich gallerist believes that the Hildebrandt class’s brown-white-pink color concept is a plagiarism of the works of one of her artists. But the “big sandwich” idea was popular before that – and the exhibition could lead to an interesting discussion about artistic inspiration.
“Good artists copy, big ones steal.” The quote is said to be from Picasso. It’s so messed up now – even Steve Jobs used it and an art insurance company advertised it – that it’s common knowledge. But what does copying, stealing or plagiarizing mean in art? When everything in art history builds on one another and Appropriation Art has even created its own art movement, in which the conscious appropriation of foreign works is central?
For the annual exhibition, the Hildebrandt class presented their rooms in the Fürst Pückler ice cream colors of brown, white and pink. The students’ works hung in one room, the other remained empty.
(Photo: Stephanie Rössing/Academy of Arts)
And yet the Munich gallery owner Christine Mayer was quite astonished when she entered the rooms of the Hildebrandt class in the annual exhibition of the local art academy. They had designed their rooms in the colors of the Fürst Pückler ice cream, i.e. brown, white and pink, and called their show “Big Sandwich”. Two years ago she had the exhibition “Big Bites in the 2nd and 4th Dimension” by Hank Schmidt in der Beek shown. The Munich-born, Berlin-based artist and musician (Lunsen trio) had taken up Kasimir Malevich’s suprematist concept from the famous “1.10” exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1915, but painted variations of Fürst Pückler ice cream or the sandwich with a waffle on all of the pictures. The show was shown again under the title “The Prince Pückler Blouse” last winter at the Kunstverein Braunschweig.
Now Mayer asked himself: Did someone copy it or did neither the students nor their professor know the work of Hank Schmidt in der Beek? Apparently the latter. Gregor Hildebrandt, a professor and himself a well-known artist, is familiar with both art scenes because he lives in Berlin and teaches in Munich, but when asked, he emphasizes: “I knew neither the artist nor his works, nor did anyone in the class.” He also sees fewer similarities than the gallery owner. The color concept of the Fürst Pückler ice cream is the basis here and there – and also almost contemporary in the air – but the implementation is different: with Schmidt in der Beek it’s the paintings themselves, with the academy class it’s the room.
Schmidt in der Beek had to find out for himself that it is quite possible for two artists to work independently of one another with the same basic idea. After creating the bites, he discovered that the artist Thoma Kapielski had realized a very similar idea in 1986. Therefore he added in his Artist book “Big bites in the 2nd and 4th dimension” (edition taube) a corresponding note. An invitation from the class to Hank Schmidt in der Beek would be a great idea. There would be topics for conversation about role models, sources of inspiration and the limits of plagiarism.