The Original in Art

[€uroMeinke]

This quote got me thinking:

Originally Posted by lizziebith

As to originals, I'm speaking from the point of view of someone who sells original art. Prints have their own value as representations of art of course (which is why I digitally watermark art I put online), but the collectors I work with really want to see that thick paint or those pencil grooves one finds on an original. Even the best giclee can't provide that. And if the piece is created digitally only that first file is original; other than the time-stamp, and correct me if I'm wrong here, aren't all subsequent copies of that file identical to the original?

I am definately one of those people that prefers original works of art. In painting the experience of seeing the brushwork, layering, texture of a work often propelit into something completely different. Once you see an original Van Gogh, the reporductions seem so flat and lifeless.

And yet there are plenty of art forms that seem to lack an "original." I think of musical composers, who create an original score - but each performance becomes a sort of attempt to achieve the artistic vision. Sometimes, that vision becomes a collaboration between compose, conducter, and musicians.

I'm also a huge fan of performance art, which similarly seemns to lack a definitive version though there may be many instances visioning the concept. So why the need for an original? Do even painting ever capture the image the artist first envisioned in his mind? Do we just consider this the best attempt, with the other artifacts of the original yieling clues to what the artist was really after - the addition of sand for texture to contrast the smothness of the paint, the layers betraying previous failed attempts at bringing the image to life, or the brush strokes hinting at the movement inherent in the static image?

Or is the original just a piece of sympathetic magic, a reliquary of the creative process whose possession might bestow us with similar creative or aesthetic powers?

Indeed just what is it we hope to grasp with an original work of art that a reproduction will not yield?