Appropriation Art and Fair Use in the Digital Age

Via Photo Eye

The REMIX Culture: Appropriation Art and Fair Use in the Digital Age

A  PANEL DISCUSSION
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
6:30-8p.m at Photo Eye Gallery

376 Garcia Street Santa Fe, NM
(505) 988 -5152

photo-eye Gallery is pleased to announce part three of our Summer Lecture Series presented in collaboration with New Mexico Lawyers for the Arts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing artists and arts organizations with pro bono legal assistances and educational programming.

As issues of appropriation and remixing increasingly flood our culture, copyright infringement lawsuits are on the rise. In the final part of our Art Law series, a range of experts from across the legal, business and creative realms of art (an attorney, a dealer, an arts consultant and an appropriation artist), will discuss the creative methods and ideas associated with appropriation in art today.

Using the facts from the high profile Cariou vs Prince appropriation case, the panel will discuss the importance of appropriation and forms of visual referencing in our culture, the differences between transformative works and infringement and whether current copyright laws provide sufficient protection while preserving an artist's freedom to reference the work of others.

All events are free and open to the public on a first come, first serve basis.



Panelists:

Benjamin Allison: a copyright and trademark lawyer at Sutin Thayer & Browne PC in Santa Fe, where his practice also includes commercial and art litigation. He has practiced law in New York City and clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Paul J. Kelly Jr. He teaches Art Law at Santa Fe Community College.

Craig Anderson: Works as an independent curator and art and museum advisor. He served as the Executive Director and Curator at Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe from 2010 to 2012. He has been watching closely the unfolding Prince v. Cariou case closely.

Sid Monroe: Sidney Monroe has been engaged in the fine-art and photography field for over 30 years. Previous to establishing Monroe Gallery of Photography with is wife and business partner Michelle, he was the Gallery Director for the flagship New York location of a leading national art gallery organization, and later a founding partner of an leading gallery of photography in New York City, SoHo Triad Fine Arts. His comments on photography have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers, and he has appeared on television programs throughout the world in conjunction with exhibitions and photography sales.

Monroe Gallery specializes in 20th and 21st Century photojournalist imagery. The gallery also represents a select group of contemporary and emerging photographers and exhibits nationally at prestigious Photography Fairs. Monroe Gallery was the recipient of the 2010 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Excellence in Photojournalism.

Casey Bock: Casey is a student and an artist. Casey received her Bachelor of Arts from University of New Mexico in Communication/Media Studies. She is Vice President of AAF Lobo Edge Advertising, UNM Art Student and artist. She currently works at UNM as an administrative assistance and at Sandia Prep as a marketing intern. Casey has also been following trends in appropriation art and has created appropriated works for school projects.

APPROPRIATION: PHOTOGRAPHY, ART, AND "STEALING"

Patrick Cariou photographs of Jamaican rastafarians altered and exhibited without consent by Richard Prince. Photograph: Canal Zone

Yesterday the Guardian newspaper had an extensive article about the recent US Federal Judge's ruling against Gagosian gallery and artist Richard Prince for unfair use of 'appropriated' Patrick Cariou rastafarian images. "A New York federal court has ruled that Prince and his gallery infringed Cariou's copyright when he produced a series of works in a 2008 show using 35 pictures from the book Yes, Rasta, published by Cariou in 2000, "in their entirety, or nearly so". The ruling, which may lead to an appeal, stands to cost Prince and the Gagosian, one of the world's leading contemporary galleries, with outlets in London and New York, potentially huge sums. Eight of the works from the exhibition, which was entitled Canal Zone, have together sold for more than $10m (£6m). Seven others have been exchanged for other works of art for between $6m and $8m."
 
Prince's "Cowboy" became the most expensive photograph ever to sell at auction when New York dealer Stellan Holm bought it at Christie’s in November 2005 for $1,248,000. Later, “Marlboro Man" (Untitled, Cowboy), set a record for a photograph when it sold for $3,401,000 at Sotheby’s in New York in 2007.

As we reported on our blog after the Fall auctions, Prince’s “Cowboy” series consisted of old Marlboro cigarette print ads that he re-photographed. And the Marlboro man was based on a LIFE magazine cover of a photograph by Leonard McCombe of a real cowboy.


Similarly, the $63.36 million realized at Phillips, de Pury by Andy Warhol's “Men in Her Life?” was done in silk-screen technique: the dark black and white picture endlessly repeats a photographic image published in LIFE magazine on April 13, 1962.

In the context of the broader art market, Photography's impact, relevance, influence, and relationship to the broader fine art field is still in its infancy. Generally, the prices for the "masters" of photography are a fraction of the prices for the masters of art. But what to think when "art" sells for millions of dollars that is directly "appropriated" from photographs? We have assembled a few relevant posts, and welcome your comments.

Renowned photojournalist Bill Eppridge: When artists appropriate the work of others


"From European collagists in the early 1900s to contemporary installation artists who cull elements from the garbage bin and the Internet, the recycling of materials and ideas has been a fertile practice in modern and contemporary art. Cubist collage, montage, Pop Art, Assemblage, and Appropriation fractured pictorial conventions and led to the upheaval of aesthetic systems of order. Photography has played a catalytic role in this revolution." -- Henry Art Gallery

Jonathon Delacour: Appropriation Art and Walker Evans: Appropriation Art  appears to be the topic du jour


Peta Pixel: Photo Theft Versus Conceptual Art

Richard Prince’s Views on Copyright



Riddle time…who is the artist that produced this image? Appropriation in Photography: II. Whose Is It, Anyway?






 
Related: Thoughts on the Record Fall Auctions