Bishop Bernard de Rossi, after Lotto 1886

Editor: This is Joseph Smith's "Bishop Bernard de Rossi, after Lotto", pencil on paper. It's a very light sketch, almost ghostly. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Consider the paper itself, the trace of graphite. Smith is enacting a process, not just replicating an image. This act of copying, the labor involved, where does it fit into our understanding of artistic production? Editor: So, it's more about the *doing* than the *being*? Curator: Precisely. The value isn't solely in the final image, but in the means of its creation, the artist's engagement with Lotto's original, the choices made in translation through a different material. Editor: I never thought about a copy having so much value in its process. Curator: Exactly, the social context and materials transform it from mere reproduction into something more.