Appropriation art is great, but sometimes it can feel like artists appropriate for the sole sake of shocking audiences. The best appropriation art instead engages in dialogue with the original work and its artist's intent, just as Neil Jenney's Improved Picassos do.The project was sparked by a serendipitous coincidence. Jenney, an acclaimed artist with works in the permanent collections of museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, and the Museum of Modern Art, thought that many of the Picassos displayed in galleries were poorly framed, and that he might do a better job of framing the works. He happened to spot artist Ki-Young Sung's copy of Picasso's Marie-Therese at Sung's commercial portrait painting studio in New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal, and a collaboration was born. Jenney commissions Sung to paint copies of Picassos he'd like to improve, and Jenney makes adjustments to the works and their framing.
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One such Improved Picasso is Boy Leading Horse. Picasso's original, the horse has no harness or lead, and the boy seems to be guiding him only by the gesture of his hand. Jenney added a harness and lead to his version of the painting. He tells The Creators Project that he "noticed that many paintings like this were sold before they were finished. The reason (possibly) being that the years from 1914-1950 were desperate times for all Europeans. If someone desired an incomplete work and had the money in hand—it was gone. Picasso never said, "Wait 'til I finish." Works like Boy Leading a Horse demonstrate the thoughtfulness with which Jenney makes these changes, and the resulting Improved Picassos are works that bridge two contintents, two artists, and two centuries.
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