The Independent School of Art staged an event titled the Black Market Auction. Artists selected for this show (which included students from the school as well as over 75 local and national artists) produced high quality knock-offs of well-known local, national, and international artists' works. The participants were requested to knock-off works that they would like to own themselves or wish to see more readily available to others. During the two-day exhibition at the Hayes Valley Market, a 6000 square foot gallery in Hayes Valley these works were sold through silent and live auction at bargain prices. All artists (knockers-off) received 50% of the sale price when their work was sold. All public information regarding this event listed the original artists and the knock-off artists intermingled so that no one knew who knocked off whom. We were simply running a black market auction of great original works, by great artists, at great prices.
These unsanctioned, yet original works, produced clandestinely by emerging, mid-career, and established national artists, were made generously available to a general public who might have previously felt the works were physically or economically unobtainable. The Black Market Auction allowed buyers and artist alike a chance to realize their dreams. The BMA gave the artists the license and excuse to copy a beloved artists work without fear of reprisal, and satisfies the desire of many of us to own great original works. The works available for sale were not interpretations, parodies, or inspired by, but true replications. These knockoffs were designed to be 90% to 100% the quality of the original artworks in comparison.
The conditions given for participating in this show allow artists not only to produce works, but to inhabit the imagined minds of favorite artists, use unfamiliar materials and methods, and even imagine themselves in another context in art history. Furthermore, artists were provided with the unique opportunity to establish a sense of ownership and pride in an idea that has personal meaning to them, has influenced them artistically, wish they had thought of themselves, and can now actually make.
The Independent School of Art reinterpreted the academic model of artist learning through direct imitation of other artists-only taking it a step further into the economic realm by offering the copies for sale. In earlier periods in the history of art (and even today in some academies), an arts education included copying of established masters' works not only for the purposes of perfecting craft, but to gain an innate understanding line by line and stoke by stroke the established conventions and invented techniques of both concept and style. The same was true for most branches of academia—a master taught the students how to do it his way, and the students first listened, then either accepted this approach or naturally rebelled. The idea of learning established approaches and then breaking from them to create a new art led to the births of both Impressionism and Jazz, two of the major artistic developments of the past 200 years. While copying of the masters' works is still taught in traditional art academies around the world, it is considered unacceptable in contemporary art in a time where originality is seen as critical to an artist's success in the eyes of his or her peers, the art world, and the public. Artists were once taught to copy other works in as part of the learning process. Now they are threatened with copyright infringement and career suicide. Walk into a museum of historic oil paintings and you will find diligent students scratching away on their sketch pad, seated in front of a great work for hours or even days. But turn on a camcorder in front of a Bruce Nauman video piece for even a moment and you will find yourself quickly being escorted to the door. The Black Market Auction provided a sanctuary for the duplication of great (and not so great) works of art, providing artists with perhaps the ultimate freedom in the age of contemporary art--to copy unabashedly and joyously.
-Jason Mortara
Partial list of participating artists:
Vito Acconci • Ansel Adams • Robin Akimbo • Verda Alexander • Francis Alys • Kim Anno • AttaBoy Studios • Balthus • Banksy • Uta Barth • J.D. Beltran • Isle Bing • John Blanco • Eric Bodine • Alighiero Boetti • Melissa Louise Bolger • Christian Boltanski • Louise Bourgeois • Constantin Brancusi • Jon Brumit • Amber Cady • Alexander Calder • Tammy Rae Carland • Castaneda and Ryman • Ilhyung Cho • Jim Christensen • Bruce Conner • Catherine Czacki • Mel Davis • Horea De Tirgu-Mur • Patricia Diart • Rita Dilorenzo • Anthony Discenza • Jennifer Durban • Marcel Dzama • David Estes • Walker Evans • Kota Ezawa • TJ Fish • Harrell Fletcher • Lucio Fontana • Fort Thunder Collective • Maggie Lee Foster • Tom Friedman • Naum Gabo • Erica Gangsei • Linda Geary • Jim Goldberg • Felix Gonzalez-Torres • Lori Gordon • Francisco Goya • Katy Grannan • Josh Greene • Pablo Guardiola • Amber Hasselbring • Damien Hirst • Julian Hoeber • Engelbert Holder • Jenny Holzer • David Ireland • Aaron Flint Jamison • David O. Johnson • Eric Renehan Jones • Frida Kahlo • Bryan Kaplan • On Kawara • Helena Keeffe • Ellsworth Kelly • Katelyn King • Yves Klein • Virginia Rose Kleker • Alexis Knowlton • John Knuth • Terence Koh • Yayoi Kusama • Melanie C. Lacy Kusters • Robert Larkin • Eric Larson • Bob Linder • Robert Longo • Antonio Lopez Garcia • Michael Lowe • Mark Manders • Piero Manzoni • Amanda Marchand • Henri Matisse • Carol Anne Mcchrystal • Naomi Miller • Rebecca Miller • Rebecca Victoria Millsop • Karla Milosevich • Daniel Minnick • Giorgio Morandi • Ranu Mukherjee • Dave Muller • Wangechi Mutu • Bruce Nauman • Kelsey Nicholson • Susan O'Malley • Yoko Ono • Meret Oppenheim • Gabriel Orozco • Ahndraya Parlato • Matthew Paulson • Paula Pereira • Pablo Picasso • Josh Pieper • Joey Piziali • Maria Porges • Aaron Poser • Richard Prince • Man Ray • Natacha Robinson • Mark Rodriguez • Will Rogan • Jon Rubin • Ed Ruscha • Robert Ryman • Fred Sandback • Chika Sato • Zachary Scholz • Matthew Nelson Shain • Cindy Sherman • Leslie Shows • David Shrigley • Brad Silverstein • Shawn Smith • David Stein • Tim Sullivan • Kelly Sultan • James Tantum • Margaret Tedesco • Althea Thauberger • Skye Thorstenson • Margaret Timbrell • Jonathon Tuttle • Richard Tuttle • Luc Tuymans • Cy Twombly • Jamie Vasta • Andy Warhol • Brian Wasson • Gillian Wearing • H.C. Westermann • Edward Weston • Virginia White • Gail Wight • Jason Wilson • Mirjam Wirz • Erwin Wurm • Michael Zheng
