Originality in Postmodern Appropriation Art

To be sure, visual artists throughout much of the twentieth century "appropriated" elements of existing art. Despite her denial of originality, Levine's work is original in a different sense, comparable to other artists who have created pieces that appropriate elements of preexisting artworksGeorge Balanchine's acknowledged use of substantial amounts of Lev Ivanov's choreography for The Nutcracker, for example.