Appropriation

Titus Kaphar, The Cost of Removal thumb — Kaphar takes a violent history and renders it visible in this modified portrait of Andrew Jackson.

The Trail of Tears and The Cost ...

Wendy Red Star, Crow Peace Delegation — Red Star annotated photographs to restore dignity and context to government-issue photographs of Crow chiefs.

Wendy Red Star, 1880 Crow Peace Delegation

Clarissa Rizal, Resilience Robe, 2014 — Chilkat weaving has been practiced by Tlingit for hundreds of years; here modernity and tradition weave together.

Clarissa Rizal, Resilience Robe

Keith Haring, Untitled Subway Drawing, 1982, caulk on paper @ Keith Haring Foundation — Haring’s subway drawings were born from his desire to create art that was accessible for everyone.

Keith Haring, Subway Drawings

Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps By Gayle Clemans Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005, oil paint on canvas, 274.3 x 274.3 cm (108 x 108 in) (Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York) — Wiley wryly places himself alongside the great master painters of history with his reimagined Napoleon.

Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over ...

Gerhard Richter, September, 2005, oil on canvas, 52 cm x 72 cm (Museum of Modern Art, New York) — Richter revives the genre of history painting in the 21st century in this work showing the events of 9/11.

Gerhard Richter, September

Gerhard Richter, Cage 1, 2006 — John Cage and Richter never met, but there was a kinship between these two artists with diverse practices.

Gerhard Richter, The Cage Paintings (1-6)

Gerhard Richter, Betty, 1988, oil on canvas, 102 x 72cm (Saint Louis Art Museum) — Hyperreal paintings like “Betty” are just one part of Richter’s practice, which resists stylistic classification.

Gerhard Richter, Betty

Hans Haacke, installation view — Haacke documents the provenance of a Seurat sketch held in a bank vault to lay bare the commodification of art.

Hans Haacke, Seurat’s “Les Poseuses” (small version), ...

Yinka Shonibare, The Swing — This British-born Nigerian artist brings a Rococo painting into three dimensions, changing some critical details.

Yinka Shonibare, The Swing (After Fragonard)

Anselm Kiefer, Shulamite, 1983, oil, emulsion, woodcut, shellac, acrylic, and straw on canvas, 213 x 145" / 541 x 368.3 cm (Doris and Donald Fisher Collection) © Anselm Kiefer, courtesy of the artist — In this canvas, Kiefer transformed architecture meant to honor Nazi heros into a memorial for their victims.

Anselm Kiefer, Shulamite

Detail, Sigmar Polke, Watchtower - detail — Cheap fabric with a garish print becomes an eerie specter of surveillance thanks to some creative chemistry.

Sigmar Polke, Watchtower series

Sigmar Polke, Bunnies - detail — Hugh Hefner turned women into objects, and Sigmar Polke turned those objects into dots.

Sigmar Polke, Bunnies

Gerhard Richter, Uncle Rudi, 1965, oil on canvas, 87 x 50 cm (Lidice Gallery, Lidice, Czech Republic) used with permission of the Gerhard Richter studio — Richter toys with both visual and ethical clarity in this evocative, ambiguous painting of an uncle lost to WWII.

Gerhard Richter, Uncle Rudi

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People), 1992, oil paint and mixed media, collage, objects, canvas, 152.4 x 431.8 cm (Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia) © Jaune Quick-to-See Smith — Smith created this in 1992, responding to the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in North America.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Trade (Gifts for Trading ...

Jeff Koons, Pink Panther, 1988, glazed porcelain, 104.1 x 52 x 48.2 cm (The Museum of Modern Art, New York) (photo: LP, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) — Koons’ cartoonish life-size emblems of childhood innocence are an assault upon both sincerity and taste.

Jeff Koons, Pink Panther