Al's awake again. I made dinner. Then there's this:
The American artist Joy Garnett, whose paintings are derived from news images, is faced with a legal action for thousands of dollars over this one. This has nothing to do with the protection of livelihood and everything to do with the suppression of free speech and free artistic practice. Don't let the schoolyard bullies win! Show your solidarity with Joy by grabbing this image and posting it on your website or by making your own artwork derived from it."
(the quote is from BoingBoing, linked at the end of this post.)
The protest page is here.
This is the image in question:
I assumed that the suit was brought by Pepsi, as somehow demeaning the brand. It wasn't.
the most interesting thing just happened: I'm being sued for copyright infringement (does it mean I'm finally a grown-up?). the joke is I was served the letter the day after I met with an arts funding rep who encouraged me to list "sampling" on my grant application as part of my painting practice. It made the whole thing seem almost funny.The plaintiff is a world-famous photojournalist who takes pics in war-torn regions; the pirated image is a detail of a photograph taken in 1978. Months back while trolling the Web for news images and such, I found the cropped detail w/ no credit line, probably on some anti-NAFTA/anarchist solidarity website, printed it out and stuck it in a folder to paint later. I had no idea it was a detail of a pic by a Magnum photographer or that it was from their most seminal series and book. The joke is definitely on me.
Is Joy Garnett a plaigiarist? Is it "stealing" to use a figure from another's work in your own? I'd sure like to see the original image, to see how much Garnett changed the image. What would happen if Garnett submitted this work for credit in a university class?
Postscript: I had first seen the image, and the controversy, from BoingBoing's guestblogger.
Johannes Grenzfurthner is writer, artist and founding member of Vienna/Austria based art-tech-philosophy group monochrom. monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science and political activism. monochrom's mission, its passion and quasi-ontological vocation, is primarily the collection, grouping, registration and querying (liberation?) of the scar tissue represented by everyday cultural artifacts.
More postscript:
The original image is here--it is huge, 70 by 60 inches. The artist has exhibited the work at Debs & Co--here are more images. For my money, while Garnett's work is obviously BASED on the work of others (news photographs) they are not mere copies; the works are transformed by Garnett's craft (the act of painting) and vision (what is emphasized, what is left out.)
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