Have you ever hesitated in using an idea or a piece of visual material created by another person in fear of being accused of plagiarism, while making some creative work? As human creative activity is constantly expanding, the boundary between an original work and a plagiarized work is growing more and more ambiguous. Thus, in the art field, controversy over plagiarism never stops. What is plagirism and what is not? Understanding parody, homage, and pastiche can solve your questions to this boundary!

Parody is a new work created for the purpose to mock and make fun of an established work. Simon Dentith, a critic, defines parody as “any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice.” To put shortly, a parody is a sarcastic and ironic imitation of an existing work. The ultimate purpose of a parodied work is fulfilled only when the audience knows the original work, that the parodied work is based on.

Homage is also an imitated work but has the opposite purpose of a parody; its purpose is to show respect for the original. Therefore, the work used in a homage is usually an old and recognized masterpiece.

Pastiche is similar to both a parody and homage since it borrows and imitates the original work, but it does not show respect nor criticize the work. In pastiche, several works are copied and combined into one recreated work, and the message the incorporated work conveys has nothing to do with the original work.

Works in all three styles can be from any cultural field including: fine art, music, films, literature, games, and animations.

- Prerequisites of Parody and Homage

Famous pop artist, Andy Warhol (1928-1987), was no exception to the copyright laws. The original work of Warhol, titled Flowers (1964), was created from pictures of hibiscus taken by Patricia Caulfield. These pictures were originally published in the magazine Modern Photography in 1964 to advertise Kodak’s color printing machine. Caulfield sued Warhol for copying the exact form and colors of her pictures, and the suit ended with Warhol paying a six-thousand-dollar settlement. As we can see from this case, when there is no added or changed meaning and/or new intention from those of the original, the questioned work is not considered a new project, but a plagiarized copy. Partial transformation of the form is also not regarded as a new work. In parody and homage, whether the original form and composition have changed or not, it is considered that a new message is created, so the work is accepted as a new project.

(Of course, if you are just making a copy in your version for leisure, and not proclaiming it as your creation, it does not matter at all; it is just a personal process in spending your free time.)

-Examples of Parody

1) Duchamp’s Parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

In parody, in order to effectively attract attention, a famous work of a well-known artist is usually used; in this example Leonardo da Vinci. Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) parodied the image of Mona Lisa to criticize the excessive popularity of Da Vinci among Parisians who were overly enthusiastic about his works. As shown in his own work, Duchamp had a playful personality and enjoyed adding humorous elements to his artwork. Duchamp bought a postcard with Mona Lisa printed in 1919, the year marking the 400th anniversary of Da Vinci's death. He drew a beard on Mona Lisa’s face with a pencil and titled the work L.H.O.O.Q. When the title is read in French, it is pronounced similar to "Elle a chaud au cul”, which means "Her hips are hot." The image with the added beard and controversial title made fun of the original work and the artist at once! As a result, many Parisians abandoned their worship of Da Vinci and questioned the excessive popularity.
The reason Duchamp became hostile to Da Vinci's popularity was because many of Da Vinci’s works, most of which we do not know of, are left incomplete and it is hard to sort out the genuine work from the imitations. Duchamp even helped promote a controversy over the evaluation of Mona Lisa!

2) Manet’s Parody of Tiziano Vecellio (1488-1576)’s Venus of Urbino

Edouard Manet (1832-1883) took parody as a means to accuse reality. He parodied Venus of Urbino and created Olympia, one of the most sensational pieces of artwork in history. The woman in Tiziano's work reflected the standard of demeanor and beauty of his era. The white, voluminous body, the blonde hair, and the hand partially covering the genitalia was expressed to attract male audiences. In addition, the dog on the bed represents the loyalty that a wife should have to her husband. Compared to the ideal beauty of Venus of Urbino, Olympia shows a woman who deviates from the standard of beauty required at the time. The hands that cover the body and genitalia of the woman are blocking the eyes of the viewer, which is far from tempting the male mainstream audience. It also expressed inadequacy by drawing a black cat instead of a puppy at the end of the bed. Moreover, the neck ribbons, dirty feet, and the title Olympia show that the woman is a prostitute, revealing a dark reality: the consumption of prostitutes by the bourgeois men and the parasitic site of the prostitutes.

-Examples of Homage

1) Picasso’s Homage of Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor,1656)

Las Meninas, no doubt the culmination of Velázquez’s oeuvre, is considered one of the most inspiring pieces of art that attracted more artists to create homages. This sole work has several homages from accomplished artists: Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Francisco Goya, Fernado Botero, Jeol-Peter Witkin, etc. The ephemeral factors from which this piece caught the attention of several artists and art historians, was the marvelous magic of light, and the perfect yet at the same time distorted perspective Velázquez embodied. Paul-Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, claims another side of this piece: it discloses épistémè (a priori that grounds knowledge and cognition. It reveals the order and condition of a particular epoch.) of Classicism. According to his demonstration, this piece of art reflects the main spirit of Classicism, unclear and vague relationship between objects and humans, and reality and imagination. In the work, the artist himself appears and the king and the queen appears as a reflection in the mirror as well. The two may be visiting Velázquez, where he is making a portrait of Princess Margaret, watching the work in front of the screen in the viewer's position, or serving as a model for Velázquez in that position. Some say that the two are located somewhere else inside the screen or that they are the mirrored reflection of the picture drawn on the canvas. These complex yet ambiguous visual devices have the effect of breaking the boundaries between the reproduced world on and off the screen ,making viewers feel as if they were actually part of court life. As the viewer's gaze, the image that is a reenactment of reality and the relationship between reality and illusion are deftly intertwined, making this work have a more complex and symbolic meaning beyond just being a portrait.

2) Sturtevant’s Warhol Flowers

Some artwork is recognized as legitimate even though they are borrowed images with no changes in composition and form. An example is Elaine Sturtevant(1924-2014)'s Warhol Flowers. Sturtevant's work is almost completely identical to the original work, Flowers, making it difficult for the viewer to determine whether it is Sturtevant's or Warhol's. However, Sturtevant did not get named in a copyright lawsuit like Warhol had. How did this happen?
The aim of Sturtevant’s homage was to question “authorship”. The astonishing similarity between the pieces makes the audience think they are appreciating Warhol’s work, but at the same time they will find an unexpected name, Sturtevant, and a different title, Warhol Flowers, under the work. In order to make this fallacy possible, Sturtevant used the same silkscreen process to create the closest approach to the original work. There is a famous anecdote about Warhol, who also thought that Sturtevant’s work was so similar to his, that when people asked Warhol of the artistic process behind his work, to ask Sturtevant! Warhol was interested in Sturtevant's intentions, and he even lent him a silk screen plate that was actually used in Flowers.

Sturtevant later copied the same techniques of Jasper Jones, Roy Lichtenstein, Joseph Boyce, and other famous artists of his time. He never asked for permission from the creator yet was never involved in any lawsuit. His questioning of the authorship and authenticity of the art, through borrowing was recognized and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, 2011.

3) Gong Eun-ju’s homage of Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935)’s Black Square
Malevich, a Russian writer, was an inventor of the absolutist movement. In order to exclude beauty, which was the ultimate goal of art, he tried to express his mind itself by removing as many elements as possible from painting. Later artists who were inspired by his idea played a major role in developing geometric abstractions away from conceptual reenactments. Black Square is considered one of the most important works that explored absoluteness through perfect shapes.
Gong Eun-joo, who focused on the materialistic properties of the work rather than the reproduction of the specific object, borrowed Malevich's works. Her Homage to Malevich is similar to Black Square. Unlike Malevich's oil painting, she used bumpy materials to represent a melodious matière.

- Exmaples of pastiche

1) Priest+Grace’s Newsweek cover

‘Priest+Grace’ (named after cofounders Robert Priest and Grace Lee) was a design agency with an aim to criticize Russia’s paranoid anti-western propaganda. The cover has a picture of President Putin posing with an oppressive hand. This visual effect was reinforced with a red Iron Fist, also a symbol of oppression. The word “Propaganda” plainly used on the cover had a similar effect as well. Designers added an old-style mood to the logo design to emphasize the atmosphere of the former Soviet Union. The origin for this kind of poster are from the posters of constructivism that Alexander Rodchenko created after the 1920s. The limited use of color, aggressive symbols, and iconographical factors in the posters influenced many posters of the day and nowadays.

2) Stories featuring Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes has long been a popular character for pastiche. This story was originally penned by Arthur Conan Doyle, who is also known for many pastiches. They appear in many ways: new Sherlock Holmes stories, stories in which Holmes appears in a cameo role, stories about imagined descendants of Sherlock, stories inspired by Sherlock Holmes but not including Sherlock himself, and so on. They are in the form of prints, movies, TV shows, novels, etc.

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”_Steve Jobs

“When there's anything to steal, I steal “_Picasso

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal."_S.Eliot

These days, borrowing from others can be a source for marvelous creations. So, do not hesitate to borrow. Just keep in mind you are trying to create your own work and take what is good from the existing work. You can be the next great artist!