The Crime of Art
2017 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
2:32 minutes (looped)
Kota Ezawa
The Crime of Art is an animation by Kota Ezawa that appropriates scenes from various popular Hollywood films featuring the theft of artworks: a Monet painting in The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), a Rembrandt in Entrapment (1999), a Cellini in How to Steal a Million (1966), and an emerald encrusted dagger in Topkapi (1964). Ezawa uses his signature cartoon-like style to remix and reenact these crime scenes, leaving only the artworks as “real” objects (as they are depicted in the films), rather than illustrating them. Reversing fiction and reality in an unexpected way, this gesture invites the viewer to question the reliability of the visual footage. Ezawa describes his artistic oeuvre as “a form of image theft” and focuses on appropriation and mediation of images through his works. Borrowing scenes from Hollywood films, The Crime of Art is in line with the tendency of the artist to copy and to manipulate imagery that belongs to popular culture. By focusing on stolen art, Ezawa rethinks the conceptual underpinnings of his work in relation to the dilemma of theft and ownership. These become urgent questions at a time when the manipulation of digital images is a part of our daily lives, blurring the line between real and fake. Through this work, the artist also questions the fragile nature of the museums that “own” objects with major cultural significance—whether looted, exchanged, bought, or donated from other cultures and geographies—many of these objects carry with them problematic histories.
Kota Ezawa borrows images from the news, art history, and pop culture and turns them into cartoon-like stories. He produces flat and two-dimensional imagery via his light-boxes, works on paper, and animations. These works are often inspired by important moments in history, such as the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, the O.J. Simpson trial, and media coverage of former National Football League (NFL) player Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem as a symbol of protest. Ezawa’s animations, which he describes as “moving paintings,” make use of a labor-intensive technique that requires the artist to recreate each frame with close attention, producing hundreds of illustrations via digital drawing and animation software. He is best known for a signature style that embraces vibrant colors and simple forms, stripping detail from images to leave only essential attributes and environments. This reductive technique does not diminish the power of the image, as it turns to the familiar historical or cultural context to fill any gaps left by the artist’s erasures. However, the gesture also invites viewers to think about how these erasures might destabilize the reliability of public memories, highlighting the faulty process of collective remembering and what it tends to overlook.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Jiri Kovanda
Kovanda’s ‘discreet’ actions (leaving a discussion in a rush, bumping into passers-by in the street, making a pile of rubbish and scattering it, looking at the sun until tears come…) are always documented according to the same format: a piece of A4 paper, a concise typewritten text, and sometimes a photograph taken by someone else...
© » HYPERALLERGIC
Required Reading Skip to content Everybody’s Bolos , a sumptuous display of historical and contemporary bolo ties exploring the traditionally Indigenous art form, just opened at the University of North Texas, with bolos on view including Wyatt Nestor-Pasicznyk's "A Wilder Blue" (left), Navajo/Hopi artist JJ Otero's "Land Back" (center), and Bee Reid's "Violet Body" (right)...
© » SLASH PARIS
Biennale de Lyon — 2024 — Usines Fagor — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Biennale de Lyon — 2024 — Usines Fagor — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Biennale de Lyon — 2024 Exposition Techniques mixtes À venir © Biennale de Lyon 2024 Biennale de Lyon 2024 Dans plus d’un an : 1 septembre 2024 → 1 janvier 2025 (Dates provisoires) Créée en 1991, la Biennale de Lyon est l’une des plus importantes biennales d’art contemporain au plan international et la première manifestation artistique d’envergure au plan national...
© » KADIST
Yétúndé Olagbaju
2021Yétúndé Olagbaju’s On becoming a star series recuperates the figure of ‘Mammy’, a stereotype rooted in American slavery that typically depicts a larger, dark skinned woman as a maternal presence, often within a domestic setting, and typically taking care of white children...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (22–28 October 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do October 22, 2018 The 11th International Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival 2018 , at Publika, 22–28 Oct This annual environmental film festival has been here since 2008, and grown over the years in breadth...
© » KADIST
Julio Cesar Morales
2006Julio Cesar Morales’s watercolor drawings, Undocumented Intervention , show a variety of surprising hiding places assumed by people trying to cross into the United States without documentation...
© » KADIST
Imran Qureshi
2017At first glance, This Day by Imran Qureshi appears to be an energetic, gestural painting reminiscent of Action Painting from the mid-20th century...
© » SLASH PARIS
Camille Esayan, Lara Bouvet — Corps composé(s) — Hôpital européen Georges-Pompidou — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Camille Esayan, Lara Bouvet — Corps composé(s) — Hôpital européen Georges-Pompidou — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Previous Next Camille Esayan, Lara Bouvet — Corps composé(s) Exhibition Collage, photography, mixed media © Camille Esayan Camille Esayan, Lara Bouvet Corps composé(s) Ends in 19 days: January 25 → March 1, 2024 Un projet de Camille Esayan et Lara Bouvet avec le Service de chirurgie cancérologique, gynécologique et du sein de l’Hôpital européen Georges-Pompidou, Paris...
© » SLASH PARIS
Sophie Blet — Pas tout à fait vides, peut-être juste impossibles — L'ahah Moret — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Sophie Blet — Pas tout à fait vides, peut-être juste impossibles — L'ahah Moret — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Sophie Blet — Pas tout à fait vides, peut-être juste impossibles Exposition Dessin, installations, photographie, vidéo À venir Sophie Blet, dissoudre — coaguler (détail), 2021 © Sophie Blet / Adagp, Paris, 2023 Sophie Blet Pas tout à fait vides, peut-être juste impossibles Dans 5 mois : 27 avril → 18 mai 2024 commissariat : Diane Der Markarian vernissage le 27.04.24, 17h-21h exposition du 27.04 → 18.05.2024 L’ahah #Moret 24-26, rue Moret, 75011 Paris L’ahah est heureuse de soutenir et de présenter le projet de recherche et d’exposition réunissant la commissaire d’exposition et critique d’art Diane Der Markarian et l’artiste Sophie Blet : Pas tout à fait vides, peut-être juste impossibles...
© » SLASH PARIS
Biennale de Lyon — 2024 — Usines Fagor — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Biennale de Lyon — 2024 — Usines Fagor — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Biennale de Lyon — 2024 Exhibition Mixed media Upcoming © Biennale de Lyon 2024 Biennale de Lyon 2024 In over 1 year: September 1, 2024 → January 1, 2025 (Dates provisoires) Créée en 1991, la Biennale de Lyon est l’une des plus importantes biennales d’art contemporain au plan international et la première manifestation artistique d’envergure au plan national...
