Great Artists Steal: How Artists Really Get Their Ideas

To paraphrase Picasso: the good borrow, but the truly great artists steal. The great masters of art earned their reputation for supposedly taking art in entirely new directions – for pioneering new techniques, breaking with tradition and busting norms – but behind almost every famous artwork you can find influence and inspiration artfully ‘stolen’ from elsewhere.

Great Artists Steal takes 40 groundbreaking artworks throughout history and shows how in truth they have their roots firmly in the past or in other works. Andy Warhol was famously obsessed with repurposing and repeating famous images from across history, while visual motifs that originated thousands of years ago are still repeated in contemporary art today. Where does ‘stealing’ begin and copying end, and how do ideas, influence and creativity travel across different generations of artists and artworks?

From the accidental to the purposeful, the innocent to the malicious, Great Artists Steal looks at all the ways famous artists have begged and borrowed their way to greatness. Whether you’re an art student, enthusiast or novice, this book will provide you with a new perspective on the history of art, and tell some fascinating stories along the way.