This got us thinking. It’s not uncommon for artists to have assistants or employ experienced craftsmen to help with the production of their work. Sometimes, that’s the only way to bring their ideas to life. Sometimes, that process is part of the art’s conceit. Sometimes, they just want the money without doing much of anything. Here’s a brief and wide survey of classical and contemporary artists who conceive, but don’t or didn’t always “make” their own work. This is not exactly “in defense” of Damien Hirst. It’s a bit that, but more of … “in contrast,” just some thoughts to levy the hype and hate currently swirling around the artist. Let’s get to it!

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

“All of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects come from ideas from their two hearts, and two brains,” the artist duo have strongly asserted. “The artists never create works that come from other people’s ideas. Never.” The two did not accept proposals, commissions, licensing deals, or grants, and they paid for installation out of their own pocket, as to not “alter and compromise their art” and work in “total freedom.” Now then, you don’t expect them to have wrap Parisian bridges and the Australian coast by their lonesome or run around planting thousands of giant umbrellas by themselves? Naturally, they employed workers for that. What do you think they were doing, painting dots?

Wait. Let’s not be too harsh here. There is a certain ruthless curatorial skill involved in the diva’s pillaging of existing cultural artifacts, stripping them of their original meaning, slicing and stuffing them into her glossy oeuvre. The result? A worshiped pop icon with documented interest in contemporary art playing Dr. Frankenstein on herself in front of the world. It’s kind of hard to look away, no matter how harshly some of us want to rant. The more we look, the more of these “artist rip-offs” we notice. Here are a few of her best hits, but we’re sure there are more. Care to join in on the fun?

Originally, the concept of ”Yoü and I” was Gaga trekking from New York to Nebraska, on foot, to find her boyfriend. “I’m walking with no luggage, no nothing. It’s just me, and my ankles are kind of bleeding a little bit, and there’s grass stuck in my shoes.” The final result was no where near carrying that plot line across, but it could have stemmed from performance art’s cougar mama Marina Abramović, an artist Gaga has frequently talked about and whose retrospective at MoMA she visited. There was this little video piece in there called The Great Wall Walk, a documentation of Abramović and her soon-to-be-ex partner Ulay walking towards each other across the Great Wall of China… Déjà vu?

Marilyn Minter, Big Girls, 1986. Enamel on canvas. Two parts. 80 x 112 inches overall. 80 x 90 inches, 30 x 22 inches. © Marilyn Minter Courtesy Team Gallery

Among the DVD’s eight film shorts are Barney’s “Hoist,” a decidedly erotic take on man vs. machine; Minter’s “Green Pink Caviar,” featuring a woman kissing, sucking, and licking in extreme close-up; Prince’s “House Call,” a revision of a voyeuristic 1970s porno; and Larry Clark’s “Impaled,” for which he interviewed Gen Y-ers on their experiences with porn, then presented the reality of their fantasies. Together, the films are sexy, disturbing, and beautiful, all at once.

Visit the film’s official website, meet all of the artists involved, check out the Daily Beast’s coverage of the project, and buy the DVD.

Click through below for the trailer, NSFW clips, and images from the film.

Power players, including Rhona Hoffman Gallery, White Cube, Haunch of Venison, Rena Bransten Gallery, and Nyehaus, are represented, as well as non-profit arts organizations, such as amfAR, the Aperture Foundation, and the International Sculpture Center. Meanwhile, special exhibitions round up artists exploring social and political ideas, works that are emblematic of major movements and developments in American art, and a presentation of 27 large-scale sculptures in the interior and exterior public spaces of the Merchandise Mart. Along with panels discussions, visits to private collections, and gallery openings and museum receptions throughout the city, Art Chicago, which runs from April 30 to May 3, is edging its way back to the top.

Laurie Hogin, Head of a Denizen, 2007. Etching and chine colle, 11 x 15 inch. Courtesy Anchor Graphics, Chicago.

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait, 2009. Jacquard tapestry, 103 x 79 inch. Courtesy Contessa Gallery, Cleveland.

We’ve assembled a provocative mix of the erotic works — ranging from a 1971 Picasso etching of three musketeers enchanted by a reclining female nude to a 1999 Cindy Sherman photo of a frighteningly bizarre baby boy — that were on sale, and most likely will be decorating some edgy collectors’ bedrooms soon.

Click here to view a NSFW slideshow of works from the auction block>>

The Runaway, 1958, is an example of Rockwell’s photo-based illustration work. Courtesy Norman Rockwell Art Collection Trust.

As NPR reports,

Rockwell used photos, taken by a rotating cast of photographers, to make his illustrations, and all of his models were neighbors and friends. Rockwell never kept it a secret, but for some reason this little fact has been neglected in recent decades. While getting permission to use some of the photographs for an online gallery, I was told that for two of the images, I would need to speak to Clemens Kalischer—a name that appears nowhere in the book or in the exhibition. On the other end of the phone line came a gravelly and reticent voice, a voice with quite a story. A German immigrant and young artist-photographer, Kalischer, now 88, moved to Rockwell’s small town of Stockbridge in the 1950s. Kalischer reluctantly assisted Rockwell through the years, but he has kept the photographs to himself and has remained quiet until now.

Rockwell’s Breakfast Table Political Argument from 1948 (left), was a Saturday Evening Post cover on Oct. 30, 1948. Courtesy Harry S. Truman Library. The black-and-white photo it was taken from (right), courtesy of Norman Rockwell Museum.

Photorealism came of age in the 1970s, as embodied by Deutsche Guggenheim’s recent exhibition “Picturing America: Photorealism in the 1970s.” Below, we’ve picked some of the most well-known artists working in the realm of photorealism, many of which are, naturally enough, US-based artists. (We’d say the theme is something akin to the invention of reality television and internet celebrity.)  Let us know any we’ve missed in the comments.

Chuck Close, Leslie (1973) and Big Self-Portrait (1968).

Marilyn Minter, Amoeba (2008) and Chewing Pink (2008). © Marilyn Minter, courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles.

Richard Estes, Supreme Hardware (1974). © Richard Estes, courtesy of Marlborough Gallery, New York.

Will Cotton, Ice Cream Cavern (2003) and Ribbon Candy (2008) . Courtesy the artist and Mary Boone Gallery, New York.

Martin Kippenberger, one of the series Dear Painter, Paint for Me (1981). © Estate Martin Kippenberger, private collection.

Robert Bechtle, Foster’s Freeze, Escalon (1975) and Alameda Gran Torino (1974). © Robert Bechtle, courtesy Paule Anglim Gallery, San Francisco.

Adam Stennett, Morning Glory Heavenly Blue with Grenades (2008) and Mouse Swimming Overhead 1 (2004). Courtesy the artist and 31GRAND, New York.

Gerhard Richter, Lesende (1994), © Gerhard Richter, courtesy San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Duane Hanson, Traveller (1988) and Housepainter (1988). © Estate of Duane Hanson, licensed by VAGA, New York.

Bonus: South Florida artist Duane Hanson took photorealism low-brow and 3D with his eerily lifelike sculptures of indigenous Southern species like tourists and blue-collar workers.