Abstract

Appropriationism, understood as an artistic practice of reproduction or taking over of the works of other authors, can be said to offer for philosophical reflection on the notion of authority in art means suited to clarifying the meaning of this notion. Far from unconditionnally agreeing with Barthes’ declaration of the death of the author and the liberation of the meaning of the work that it implies, appropriationism forces one to consider a certain return of the author and his prerogatives, on the basis which the issue of the interpretation of a work emerges. In the light of a part of the photographic work of Sherrie Levine an attempt is made in this article to examine the authoritarian role that an artist can play in the reception of the works he has created (transl. J. Dudley).