ROANOKE, VA.- In 2005, Don and Mera Rubell, legendary collectors and founders of the Rubell Family Collection, had a series of conversations with artists about the nature of appropriation and mentorship in their work as a way to honor past generations of artists. This exhibition was born out of those conversations, and its title comes from a quote attributed to Picasso: “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” While the question of artistic influence may not be new, what artists choose to borrow, appropriate or steal, and from whom, is distinct in that it becomes a reflection of their own time and culture.

Beg, Borrow and Steal presents a selection from artists whose work incorporates qualities of the artistic legacies of their predecessors. The Taubman Museum of Art had the unique opportunity to exclusively tailor the presentation for Roanoke, Virginia — an exhibition unlikely to be replicated. The exhibition presents over fifty seminal works culled from the larger collection.

Beg, Borrow and Steal explores artists who use appropriation in a way that honors past generations of artists while also referencing contemporary culture. The curatorial premise elaborates on artists’ efforts to build on the legacies of their predecessors as they present their own new ideas.

The exhibition brings together artists from different generations whose work abandons the search for new visuals and instead seeks an inventive use of existing images and cultural symbols. Artists in the exhibition who establish this artistic tradition include Ai Weiwei, Robert Gober, Jenny Holzer, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Takashi Murakami, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring.

Photography plays a significant role in much of the work, which is represented in the exhibition by artists John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, David Salle, and Cindy Sherman — all of whom use images to create dense collages or appropriate stereotypical portraits in humorous and playful ways.

Other exhibited artists such as Kehinde Wiley and Jean-Michel Basquiat are looking at sources as vastly diverse as graffiti and 17th Century European masters’ painting to provide a message on art history’s lack of representation and diversity in race. Some of the represented artists use technical innovations and the web to create multi-layered and densely informed art such as Barbara Kruger whose work Untitled (Money Makes Money) features the iconic phrase screen printed over the photographic image of a rose.

As equally important to the notion of artist appropriation in Beg, Borrow, and Steal is the story of collecting art. The Rubells began purchasing art in the mid- 1960s when Mera was a Head Start teacher and Don was in medical school. They were among the earliest collectors of Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Prince.