What defines an artist’s style? Is it a bundle of techniques, brushstrokes, and colors, or is it the ideas that drive the work? Consider Picasso: is it his Cubist approach or the way he framed the tragedy of Guernica that makes him unique?
The truth lies in a blend. The essence of a truly recognizable artist comes from both the distinctive methods and the personal concepts that inform every piece. This fusion is what adds value to the art and makes the creator’s identity inseparable from the works themselves.
In recent times, technology has begun to shape how styles are expressed and reproduced. Emerging artists such as Simon Stålenhag and Manuel M. Romero remind us that new tools can play a significant role in shaping what sets artists apart. The frontier now includes artificial intelligence and its potential to mimic the technical aspects of an artist’s style, enabling new creations that echo a known voice while being produced by machines.
What started a few years ago with early demonstrations of automated painting raised questions about whether creativity is a uniquely human trait. Since then, AI systems such as DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney have matured and are capable of generating images that reflect a wide range of styles. Digital minds trained on vast datasets can produce works that resemble a particular artist, often without financial benefit to the original creator. The beneficiaries may be the operators of the AI, or those who commission the generated art.
For example, showing Picasso’s images to an AI can prompt the machine to imitate his techniques. When fed large datasets that include many subjects like cats, architecture, or landscapes, the AI can craft a painting that resembles Picasso’s approach. This observation comes from Andrés Guadamuz, a professor at the University of Sussex who specializes in intellectual property and how it intersects with creative practice.
To explore the practicalities, the Midjourney AI was asked to produce a composition. The request was playful and explicit, inviting a landscape of a yellow field with windmills and characters imagined in the styles of Picasso and Van Gogh. The result aimed to resemble a portrait of a DreamWorks figure and a fusion of Warhol and Dalí’s aesthetics.
Within seconds, multiple variations appeared for each request, offering quick choices. While the outputs are not flawless, it becomes easy to discern which artistic voice they imitate.
Although the visuals clearly align with recognized artistic paradigms, none of the resulting images are the property of Dalí, Warhol, Van Gogh, or Picasso. Instead, the creations are attributed to the user who ordered them, or to the AI system executing the command. The underlying style does not belong to any single person, yet it produces new works that bear the imprint of a well-known sensibility.
As the technology feeds on the style being sought, the act of creating shifts from requiring practical drawing skill to expressing an idea and letting an artificial intelligence render it. This shift challenges traditional notions of authorship and profit, raising questions about who ultimately controls the rights and benefits when such works are commercialized.