Quoting artworks: Historical development of art appropriation

Art appropriation, defined as a method by which artists quote from other artists? works in order to create new works, dates back to the earliest periods of history; however it continues also in the present day having undergone many changes in time. This thesis aims to trace this practice, determine main reasons and analyse the changes it went through with examples selected from various periods of mainly Western art history while looking from an art historical perspective. The study, which begins with definitions of art appropriation and other closely related terms, investigates common reasons of this practice such as learning via copying, paying homage to the masters, documenting, parody, interpretation, criticism of modernist notions, updating in the next section; and it is seen that whereas some of the reasons are still current despite the passing centuries, others lost validity and became obsolete. The following section, which takes the second half of the nineteenth century as a beginning since it is identified as a breaking point due to the fact that it was the first time when critical intentions were observed in artworks that make references to art history, evaluates the historical development of art appropriation method chronologically until today. It is concluded that art appropriation is not a novel method, and artists have made use of this method in every period of art history, however in time it gradually acquired a more critical dimension and is instrumentalised in order to drawn attention to various issues and raise consciousness.