Appropriation (art)

In art, appropriation is the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them.^[1] The use of appropriation has played a significant role in the history of the arts (literary, visual, musical and performing arts). In the visual arts, "to appropriate" means to properly adopt, borrow, recycle or sample aspects (or the entire form) of human-made visual culture. Notable in this respect are the readymades of Marcel Duchamp.

Inherent in the understanding of appropriation is the concept that the new work recontextualizes whatever it borrows to create the new work. In most cases, the original "thing" remains accessible as the original, without change.