June 15, 2011 - Copyright and Fine Art Presentation Tomorrow at National Arts Club

I hope that you will join me tomorrow night at this event, there is no charge for attendance.


National Arts Club
The Photography Committee Presents

Copyright and Fine Art
Wednesday, June 15, 8 PM

15 Gramercy Park South (east of Park Avenue South @ 20th Street
Fine art and the copyright laws have always had an uneasy relationship. Artists should be free to use their surroundings as raw material for free expression. But shouldn’t artists get paid for their creativity? And what happens when we live in a media world and our surroundings are locked down by copyright? Should an artist have the power to use the courts to seize and destroy another artist’s work? Join us as attorney Ray Dowd takes us on a visually-driven exploration of creativity at the cutting edge and the fate of “appropriation artist” Richard Prince in the ongoing lawsuit with French photographer Patrick Cariou.

Raymond J. Dowd is the author of Copyright Litigation Handbook (West 5th Ed. 2010). He is Co-Chair of the Art Litigation and Dispute Resolution Institute at the New York County Lawyers’ Association. He is an attorney in private practice with Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP a firm with practices in trusts & estates, litigation, copyright, trademark and art law.



 http://www.dunnington.com/rdowd_bio.html
 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2010 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here  

Fair Use Fridays: Richard Prince Redux: Can Appropriation Art Be Stolen? Or De-Appropriated With An Eraser?

Gregorg is calling his lawyer because someone is stealing his Richard Prince appropriation.

More on Richard Prince and Appropriation art here and here. 

Cat Weaver's Garden Sans Cariou.  Stealing the stolen stuff out of a thief's misappropriation?   Full story on Hyperallergic here.  

My take on Cariou v Prince here and here.


 http://www.dunnington.com/rdowd_bio.html
 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2010 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here  

Art Litigation: Artist Richard Prince and Gagosian Gallery Lose Copyright Infringement Case

Work from Prince's infringing series incorporating Cariou's photographs



In Cariou v. Richard Prince, Gagosian Gallery, et al 08 CV 11327 (S.D.N.Y. March 18, 2011)(Batts, J.), the court issued a decision finding Richard Prince's artworks to be copyright infringements.   Prince, known as an "appropriation artist" took Cariou's photographs from a book called Yes, Rasta.

The opinion is noteworthy and will basically EXPLODE the contemporary art world, which has invested heavily in Richard Prince and his appropriations. The opinion notes that Prince thinks his artworks are pretty meaningless, but the owners of his artworks will probably mobilize art and cultural critics to supply a deeper meaning pronto.    Perhaps in future litigation Prince will become more articulate about the nature of his artistic vision, as did artist Jeff Koons whose early losses have now been turned into wins based in part by affidavits certifying that his art does indeed have a message more pleasing to judicial ears.

More on this case, including images here.   More on appropriation art here.  A Photo Editor opines here. 

Clancco is outraged  delighted that the decision includes an order to impound and destroy Richard Prince's artworks, which Larry Gagosian made over $10 million dollars in selling, read Clancco here.

Does the price of a Prince work go up after this decision?

Here is the decision:

Cariou v Richard Prince

March 22, 2011 update:

More commentary from Ruling Imagination here.

 http://www.dunnington.com/rdowd_bio.html
 Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2010 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here  

Appropriation Art and Wikipedia

In preparing for a presentation I gave last week at the National Arts Club on "Copyright and Creativity" I found some great wikipedia entries that were very helpful. The wikipedia entry for Appropriation (art) is found here. Also the Art Intervention entry is found here.

Both movements involve using, modifiying, stealing or vandalizing someone else's artwork. Sometimes litigation ensues.

I have inserted Marcel Duchamps' L.H.O.O.Q. (1919), where he puts a mustache and goatee on the Mona Lisa.

Contemporary artists continue to annoy, harass, steal, disrupt and dismay us. Decades later, their works will be valued and celebrated. My favorite is http://www.whitneybiennial.com/. The artist Miltos Manetas stole the Whitney's name and a very good domain name and used it to build a version of the Whitney's 2002 Biennial that included his web-based artworks. He told the press that he was going to surround the Biennial with U-haul trucks with screens showing web-based art that he likes. He never did, but he created a huge uproar.

The social or artistic value of a work that borrows so heavily from another's work is not always apparent. For example, the "appropriation artist" Richard Prince photographed Marlboro advertisements, took out the wording of the advertisement, and blew up the photographs without any other modifications. Pure copyright infringement? One of his photographs reached a world record for photography when it auctioned in 2005 for over $1.2 million.

The artist Jeff Koons (who recently won a case against a photographer whose image he placed in a painted collage) has similarly caused scandal, litigation, and has eventually reaped tremendous financial rewards for reinterpretations - or outright taking - of works under copyright.