ABSTRACT
Salle's use of Pollock shows oblique finesse. At another stage of sophistication, Mike Bidlo's exercise of the Pollock option made him an art-world equivalent of an Elvis impersonator. In 1982 Bidlo mocked up a fireplace at P.S. 1 and hung make-believe Pollock memorabilia above it. Nearby, he showed his imitations of Pollock's drip paintings. To complete the piece, called Jack the Dripper at Peg's Place, he had himself photographed while urinating in the fireplace. Two years later, Bidlo lined a space with aluminum foil in homage to the silver Factory and decorated it with his replicas of Warhol's most famous paintings. Next he copied works by Picasso, Matisse, and Leger, then Lichtenstein, de Chirico, and Magritte. The more slavishly Bidlo tried to embody the historically certified masters of modern art, the further he drifted from modernism's habit of doubt, its knack for experiment. Driven by a fan's uncritical faith, Bidlo could imitate but not elaborate.
