My early morning routine (e-mail then music blogs then more e-mails listening to music, then surf random crap linked from the blog sites) fired me into this little side story: Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein was a complete rip-off merchant. Why? The below image is one of the (150 odd) comic panels Roy bit [badly!] then sold off as his own work (inset).
And - far from being an art expert - the original images feel a lot more engaging than the copied works. Click the link below and amuse yourself. David Barsalou is the man responsible for undertaking the staggering feat of finding all the original comic frames used by RL.
There is an old saying that 'good artists borrow but great artists steal' ... Does being a great artist mean you also have to be utterly shameless? This is almost as bad as Kanye West.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deconstructing-roy-lichtenstein/46915624/