Some say there is no such thing as original art; maybe even an original thought. With history spanning thousands and thousands of years, so much has been written, painted, and sung about already that it would be difficult to create something that bears no resemblance at all to what has already been presented.
In one of his pieces, a British art critic who has long covered art for the Guardian, Jonathan Jones, expanded on the idea beautifully, saying that, “The story of art is largely a story of homages, remakes, rivalrous borrowings, nuanced imitations.”
According to J. Jones, there truly is nothing new under the sun, or at least, not entirely new. “Originality does not burst from an artist's head like an alien entity, but is a subtle game of variations and transformations out of which, once in a while, comes the shudder of true artistic surprise,” he wrote.
To prove his point, the art critic provided some examples, such as Rembrandt creating his Self Portrait arguably copying the pose of Titian’s ‘Man with a Quilted Sleeve’ or Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ paying homage to Raphael's fresco ‘The Fire in the Borgo’.
It’s not only painters that draw inspiration—or ideas—from works of other artists. It is arguably even more common—and evident—in the music industry, where hits of times past are brought back to life, whether by sampling or creating a new version entirely.
Take Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘C.R.E.A.M.’ for instance, a single released in 1994, that is one of the most recognizable hip hop songs to this day – while it’s no secret that the melody has been sampled, the original song from 1967, ‘As Long As I’ve Got You’ by The Charmels, is far less known.
If you’re looking for an arguably even lesser known sample, try guessing where Jason Derulo’s somewhat iconic ‘Whatcha Say’ (released in 2009) came from. (Hint: give Imogen Heap's 'Hide and Seek' (2005) a listen.)
While millions of songs are sampled in the process of creating new hits, others live through a renaissance after artists present new—often more upbeat—versions, sometimes taking the song to new heights on record charts.
There is an abundance of examples of such songs, too; Asaf Avidan’s ‘Reckoning Song (One Day)’, for one, which gained even more popularity after the German DJ Wankelmut gave it an EDM remix. Though Avidan wasn’t too happy about it at first:
“At the start, I asked him politely, and then not-so-politely, to take it off YouTube and stop giving it to DJs. And he just completely ignored me. I didn’t really have time to be bothered with it because I was making a record at the time and I guess it’s for the best now,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Even if artists don’t create masterpieces using something that has already been done and dusted—sampling an existing song, for instance—they might seek inspiration from other artists, influences of whom might reflect in their work.
One of the most popular singer-songwriters at the time, Billie Eilish, has shared that for her, some of the biggest influences have been The 1975, Tyler, the Creator, James Blake, Lana Del Rey, and Nicki Minaj; and while Billie’s music doesn’t sound exactly like Lana’s or Tyler’s, they might have inspired certain bits and pieces of the young artist’s songs.
The same way artists and their work inspire other artists, certain marvels of classical art have seemingly inspired netizens to create these wonderful memes, which members of ‘Cart Memes - Classical Art Memes’ now get to marvel at. If you’ve enjoyed browsing them, too, make sure to join the group and continue to our meme category next for more similar entertaining content.
