(Mike Bidlo in conversation with Robert Rosenblum, ‘Mike Bidlo Talks to Robert Rosenblum’, Artforum, April 2003, online.)

A central figure in the appropriationist group, Bidlo draws inspiration from 20th century movements and artists and their vast history to provide commentary. Born on the 20th of October 1953 in Chicago IL, he studied at the University of Illinois before receiving his MFA from the Southern Illinois University. His practice grew widespread in acclaim for its literal replication of original paintings of Yves Klein, Jackson Pollock and Constantin Brancusi as well as his performances such as his public recreation of Guernica in Los Angeles in 1984. The work he creates brings to light questions of authorship and the slippage of replication. He therefore typically signs the work with his handprint and titles the work with NOT before the original artist’s name to avert any assumptions of forgery, i.e. Not Picasso, Not Duchamp and underline his role as a re-creator.

A movement which deliberately replicates the works of other artists, Appropriation Art re-contextualises what it borrows to create new works from the original. Bidlo follows in the wake of artists such as Elaine Sturtevant, who in the 1960s reshaped the works of her contemporaries such as Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella and Sherrie Levine who re-photographed the works of Walker Evans in the 1970s. “I have always thought that the paintings had the possibility of having double the meaning. In other words, there is the original and yet there is another layer of meaning added to the original that made it richer, more Borgesian - sort of like doubling the inventory.” (Mike Bidlo in conversation with Anna Bonney, Bomb Magazine, BOMB 45, Fall 1993, online). Not Pollock (1983) is a replica of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings. Born as an act of tribute as well as provocation, Bidlo spent a few years first learning to paint in Pollock’s signature style before executing the series “NOT Pollock” drip works. Through his re-enactment of Pollock’s technique and final product, Bidlo explores concepts of originality, creativity, and mimicry while adding another layer of meaning to the original. “I practiced a lot after seeing the Namuth film. I also tracked down as many actual Pollocks as I could find so that I could closely examine how they were made. In trying to replicate his gesture, I discovered his line is a kind of cursive penmanship that could be learned like the Palmer method. After a year of trial and error, I learned to control viscosity, layering, and the different ways paint hits and is absorbed into the surface of the canvas.” (Mike Bidlo in conversation with Robert Rosenblum, ‘Mike Bidlo Talks to Robert Rosenblum’, Artforum, April 2003, online.)