“Cheating...”
Fair enough. But the same could probably have been said with the introduction of any new technology to the field. The first sculptor to use electric power tools probably heard “cheater” from the guys just using hammers and chisels.
If a robot can chisel out a near-perfect replica of the Venus de Milo or Michelangelo’s David or Augustus of Prima Porta, I’d imagine that there’ll be a market for that sort of thing.
You miss the point. Reproductions/replicas are not art, they are copies.
“The first sculptor to use electric power tools probably heard “cheater” from the guys just using hammers and chisels.”
True... but at least he had to sculpt. He couldn’t go into town for a sandwich and let the power tools do it all.
“The first sculptor to use electric power tools probably heard “cheater”
No. If the power tool is like a brush, pencil, chalk, chisel, drafting table, which is guided by a human hand, is not “reproducing”. Such a product comes from a human mind and is an original.
I recall a line of oil painting reproductions of classic paintings that were so good they had to put a disclaimer on the back. Still pricy (at the time a couple thousand) but a real opportunity to have a Monet hanging in the living room. I'd get one