Mike Bidlo

Appropriations, fakes, copies, reproductions - Bidlo's admirers insist his works are none of these.  Quite where they do fit in the originality spectrum, is the question which kindles our interest.  Inadvertently, the present work recently obtained additional distinction when the original on which it is based, Picasso's 1932 La Rêve, suffered a well-publicized, accidental assault at the hands (elbow, to be specific) of its owner, Las Vegas entrepeneur Steve Wynn, resulting in damage to the work which is not of course reflected in Bidlo's version.  One wonders how this change to the original affects the present work's relation to it.