Friday, March 03, 2006

Pretty plagiarism?



As much as I like this picture by Nicoletta Ceccoli, which adorns the cover of the last Born Magazine, it seems like...well, I'll say it - plagiarism. The Lithuanian-Polish artist Stasys Eidrigevicius painted incredibly similar pictures some 30 years ago or more, in a children's book I have somewhere in Poland. Here is an example of a similar book, though slightly different.
The pictures I'm refering to show a boy with his head covered in birds that fly away out of it. The book is a poem by Joanna Papuzinska about a boy that instead of having toys or adventures has ideas.
Even the birds look similar.
Then again, Bach's copy of Vivaldi's violin concerto was apparently a great tribute. How are we to judge?

9 comments:

Hernando said...

Good, good, very good site. I like your art web site. Congratulations.

I have a web site of performance art and poetry:

http://elartistadesnudo.blogspot.com

Best regards

Hernando

Anonymous said...

I Can't say it's plagiarism or not... Maybe some informations are missing about the context of that work by nicoletta ceccoli.

Maybe she took a work of a another artist as a strong reference. could it be "talking about" (without being a tribute) instead of simply copying it?

Carla C.

vvoi said...

hmm... yes, today i don't think it is plagiarism. even not knowing anything about the picture. it is possibly a case of being inspired by someone else's work (stron reference, as you call it). Besides, it has several new elements, and the style is different (even if quite similar). I apologize for jumping to (hypothetical, but nonetheless suggested) conclusions.

Anonymous said...

don't apologyse! It's good to discuss some things... Despite what I said above I don't put aside the idea of plagiarism...

C.C

Hans said...

Hi Vvoi, very silent your none posting lately. Very interesting topic, plagiarism, in our time of stealing, cut and paste. I had such a strong feeling on another website, just would be interesting what do you think about (assuming that you as me spent your childhood in the Ostblock, thus me Eastgermany, you Poland) these illustrations really reminded me on schoolbook illustrations from former Sovietunion, but some illustrations for sure have their own impact, I am just asking about the initial ideas...)
http://tinyurl.com/zd5gk

As for Nicoletta Ceccoli, I've seen such paintings very often, from different countries, as well as polish artists, georgian artists and others. Such style of painting seems to be more a way of philosophy of life and art, and is pretty wide spread.

Anabela Rocha said...

I think Hans has said something very interesting to contrast with the concept of plagiarism: today things are wide spread. Also art practice is more wide spread than ever. So, we have lots of people producing lots of art and suffering lots of references. So, it is more probable, from a statistical point of view, that someone will produce something very similar to someone else - without the intention of plagiarism (and the intention is important when we are speaking of plagiarism).
Of course, a total different matter is when we ironize through intended plagiarism.

Shawn Marie said...

Nicolette's painting has a nostalgic, warm, inviting feel to it. Stasys' work is more comical, fun, & nightmarish. People take ideas & run with them. Maybe it's just that great minds think alike;)

vvoi said...

today I totally agree with you, Shawn. I wouldn't even come close to writing this post today and really am rather embarrassed by it. I think the issue truly is complex and it irritates me to see myself treat it so light-heartedly. but that's part of the game - to see it all there, written by my very own self, and to have to deal with it.

Anonymous said...

All her work is a cheap imitation of Mark Ryden anyway

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