Warhol and me – battle of the authors: from copying to sharing

Abstract

This paper presents two case studies which tackle issues of authorship andsources of inspiration. To what extent can the sources of inspiration be usedas a part of the creative process before there is a risk of copying? To enablean understanding of what defines an authentic work of art and how we allbecome authors, this paper looks into specific concepts, such as Walter Ben-jamin’s ‘aura’, David Joselit’s concept of ‘buzz’, and postmodernism, the timewhen reproduction became an accepted form of art. These themes are investi-gated in greater detail by analysing two related artistic case studies that were inspired by American artist Andy Warhol, the undeniable master of the art ofcopying. Case studies follow Warhol’s example by using repetition and bor-rowing images made by others as the basis of the creative process. The paperproposes that to be able to find answers the border between inspiration andcopying needs to be crossed and the experience of copying lived in order tocultivate a deeper understanding of the topic. Sources of inspiration becomean important part of the process and the traditional concept of single author-ship might need to be replaced by ‘shared authorship’.