NYCLA Art Litigation and Dispute Resolution Institute, November 2009 - Now Available on DVD

If you missed the November New York County Lawyers' Association Art Litigation and Dispute Resolution Institute program, you can now get it on DVD, our speakers and topics were truly extraordinary.   Ordering information at NYCLA.org - here.

Program Co-chairs:


Hon. Stephen G. Crane, JAMS; Raymond J. Dowd, Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP


Description:


An unparalleled panel of experts from the bench, bar, museums, art galleries, auction houses, trade and on-line publications, appraisers and insurance companies take you through the most relevant issues in today’s art world. Agenda includes:

Holocaust Restitution Claims: Courtrooms, ADR or a U.S. Restitution Commission?
Proving Provenance of Artworks: Discovery and Investigative Tools
Installation Art: Construction, Control & Caretaking in a Litigious World
The Artist’s Estate and Foundation: Problems and Perspectives
Biennials and Art Fairs: Law and Practice
Expert Appraisals: Practice and Ethics
Deviations from Trust Indentures, Cy Pres and Deaccessioning
Original Tape Date: November 20, 2009

Credits: 7.5 MCLE Credits

7.5 MCLE Credits: 4 Ethics; 1 Skills; 2.5 PP; Non-Transitional

Faculty:

Chris Alfieri, Biennial Corporation, Director Prospect 1 New Orleans; Helen Allen, PULSE Art Fair, Affordable Art Fairs; Richard Altman, Altman Law Office; Judith Bresler, Withersworldwide; Prof. Lynn Catterson, Columbia University; Hon. Stephen G. Crane (Ret.); Sharon Flescher, International Foundation for Art Research; Prof. Edward Gaffney, Valparaiso Law School; Hon. Nicholas Garaufis,U.S. Dist. Ct., EDNY; Hon. Kristin Booth Glen, Surrogate, NY County; Robert Gober, Artist; Charles Goldstein, Herrick Feinstein, Commission for Art Recovery; Elizabeth von Habsburg, Gurr Johns International; Nick Holmes, Whitney Museum; Hon. Barbara Jaffe, Civil Ct., NYC; Amb. J. Christian Kennedy, Special Envoy, Holocaust Issues, US. Dept. of State; Prof. Jennifer Kreder, NKU Salmon B. Chase College of Law; Jules Kroll, Jemkroll Holdings LLC; Hon. Phyllis Beck; Ralph Lerner, Withersworldwide; Chris Marinello, The Art Loss Register; Judith Prowda, Sotheby’s Institute; Hon. Reena Raggi, U.S. Ct. of Appeals, 2d Cir.; Ronald Spencer, Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP; Carol Steinberg, School of Visual Arts; Peter Stevens, The Estate of David Smith; Hon. Richard Wesley, U.S. Ct of Appeals, 2d Cir.; James P. Wynne, FBI, Art Crimes Unit; Donn Zaretsky, John Silberman Associates PC

All Programs include: (1) Affirmation and (1) DVD/CD packet.

Course Materials: DVDs have a PDF version of the course materials on the DVD. CD orders will come with a separate PDF version of the course materials. Written materials provided only upon request.

Richard Prince - Practicing Without a License

In 2005, a Richard Prince photograph of a Marlboro cigarettes advertisement was auctioned for over $1.2 million - a world record. He photographed the Marlboro ad without permission removing the identifying marks. In a 1977 essay, Prince proclaimed that he was "practicing without a license" - referring to his practice of stealing other people's pictures and publishing them as his own.

Prince is having a one-man show at the Guggenheim museum, titled "Spiritual America". The title of the show comes from disturbing nude photograph of a prepubescent Brooke Shields taken by photographer Gary Gross that Prince "rephotographed" and presented in a gilt frame in a gallery on the Lower East Side. The photograph is part of the Guggenheim show and reprinted in its catalog.

Prince likened his taking of others' photographs to sampling someone else's 8-track tape, he could manipulate his "8 -track photographs" in the following way:

1. the original copy
2. the rephotographed copy
3. the angled copy
4. the cropped copy
5. the focused copy
6. the out-of-focus copy
7. the black-and-white copy
8. the color copy

Prince's show is interesting, disturbing, and challenging. In Nancy Spector's catalog essay, she likens Prince's acts to the act of Marcel Duchamps submitting a urinal as part of an art show (Duchamps called this "readymade") - and this act is widely considered with opening up and introducing the art of the 20th century. Is Prince a Warholian or Duchampian genius - or a fraud? If auction prices, income, and museum shows are a measure - Prince is a genius of the highest order. He certainly has his critics, though.

As we move into a world where digital photography and sophisticated consumer-level photo retouching software is available, appropriating and manipulating images has become a widespread phenomenon. His appropriation may foreshadow the copyright battles of the future, and a weakening of the visual artist's copyright.

But as you go up the Guggenheim spiral, you will note less wholesale appropropriation, and more borrowing of bits and pieces. Once an artist is successful and no longer judgment proof . . . remaining an outlaw becomes problematic. His latest series consists of scanning faces from the works of De Kooning and sticking pornographic cut-outs onto the bodies.

Maybe we will all see "moral rights" in a different light after this show. See it and judge for yourself.