~copyright wars: RICHARD PRINCE, PAUL McCARTHY / DAN ASHER vs DONALD BAECHLER
it’s not just crazy, maybe autistic, and even if . . , so what ? artists who have tragic flaws, apparently so does the legal world . . esp when it comes to almost everything COPYRIGHT and the ART WORLD – with this week being . . a stunner.
FIRST UP: RICHARD PRINCE vs EVERYBODY & ANYBODY WHO HAS A CREATIVE, ORIGINAL THOUGHT & IS SILLY ENOUGH TO PUBLISH THE ‘PRODUCT’ aka THEIR ‘VISION’ – AS A BOOK.
or poster, or advert, cartoon etc, etc.
from the RICHARD PRINCE ‘CANAL ZONE’ (2008) series – image via ART IN AMERICA
in what most artists would feel to be a major rip-off, s-o-m-e-h-o-w . . could it be BIG MONEY ?
(some of the disputed paintings sell for over $10 million, each !!), some (sketchy, at the very least) appeals court in NYC, let this obvious ‘trashing’ & exploitation of another artist’s original content – French photographer PATRICK CARIOU and his ‘Yes, Rasta’ book of photographs, published in year 2000 – get a: ‘pass go and collect the $$$$$’.
how this qualifies as ‘FAIR USE’ is beyond reason, or is that just me, esp being a photographer.
and you better damn well keep the paws – off my pix !!
I mean, doesn’t the SHEPARD FAIREY ‘OBAMA’ ruling have any relevance here.
you damn well know it’s bad, as in . . s-t-i-n-k-y !!
when everybody in the art media world proclaims it a A HUGE LANDMARK SUCCESS, with no question or thought . . must be the power of those ‘GOGO’ media mega dollars at work.
if you read between the lines, the judge left 5 pieces in the gray area, so obviously GOGO & PRINCE will shoot a lot of money at the wronged CARIOU, and that will be that, no more appeals – and voila: a landmark ruling on copyright ca. 2014.
trust me, even I know, small nobody business that I am, I’m not the only person in the world . . whose has been told by a lawyer, “it’s a business decision, it’s not about right or wrong.”
at the very least, PRINCE should have credited the photographer, if not licensed the work for his creative use.
the trouble with copyright law – is it really hit the fan – with the web.
basically: google engines brought down copyright law, copyright law was already dog-eared and arcane / but now . . nothing goes up – that can’t be seen by the original source, even oceans apart.
never mind that copyright law originated before reproduction became as easy as 1,2,3 – click ..
and, esp now with .. ‘image’ google, and it works good, too.
this quote unquote ‘landmark’ decision makes the courts look bad, and I’m pretty sure it’s not going to stick, let alone be the ‘landmark’ the GOGO camp is claiming. personally, I wouldn’t rush out and buy anything as tainted and anti-artist original content as this, just on principle, if not with an eye towards . . hopefully, future righteousness. it’s definite low rent skuzzy.
further, this series of work, along with Prince’s ‘Marlboro Cowboy’, etc makes him, Prince look more and more like a gifted ART EDITOR, with an eye to a good art image – than a particularly good or talented artist.
though, thanks for bringing PATRICK CARIOU to the stage.
but, victory aside, GOGO, PRINCE & CO better watch out for those . . duppys – the Rasta Jamaican undead / as in . . ghosts !! calling on . . BOB MARLEY, y’all.
and if a blog ain’t reggae, what is it ?
GOGO, PRINCE, and DUPPY, huh. come on, somebody . . make me a rhyme.
see: Richard Prince Wins Major Victory .. ART IN AMERICA
SECOND: PAUL McCARTHY & MIKE BOUCHET vs GUGGENHEIM BILBOA
‘BILBAO BATTLESHIP BILLBOARD’ by artists PAUL McCARTHY & MIKE BOUCHET
PHOTO: CAMILO BRAU via THE ART NEWSPAPER
if the GOGO / PRINCE caper wasn’t bullsh-t – what’s this ?
just looks like: THE BIG MONEY WINS, EVERY TIME.
no matter what. end of story.
am I just jaded. autistic, stupid. I don’t think so.
if any image deserved to come out on top re ‘FAIR USE’ . . you’d think it would be this, satire. plus what is a ‘cutting edge’ contemporary art museum doing being so censorious. shame shame shame . .
plus . . it’s such a great image & such a great provocative info / image too.
and, it got taken down in like 24 hrs.
by an art museum sourced outta NYC. so, bad news. unbelievable, I’m still shaking my head in disbelief.
forget Spain, put that banner up in Times Sq.
haha: PAUL McCARTHY & MIKE BOUCHET should do a piece ripping off every nurse painting RICHARD PRINCE ever did, by reproducing them, with a big purple ‘blotch’ over their faces, and claim: ‘TRANSFORMATIVE’ – and then sell those for – 10 million smackeroos, ea. !!
and yeah, I want 10% – for the idea.
see: Guggenheim Bilbao Fires back .. WALL STREET JOURNAL
see: Billboard work taken down .. THE ART NEWSPAPER
THIRD: WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO . . DAN ASHER ASHER vs DONALD BAECHLER !!
which makes it a . . full circle day.
well, since DAN was so unrecognized in his lifetime – ORAL HISTORY is the only way to go, and if I don’t get it on paper, trust me – DONALD BAECHLER sure as hell ain’t gonna pony up – to the time he ripped off Dan’s work – outright, and exhibited it as his own.
and, yes – he did !! !! !!
DONALD BAECHLER, ‘Self Portrait’, 1986.
image courtesy: ELMHURST ART MUSEUM
“Self-Portrait”, my foot.
well, this might NOT be an exact one of the ‘rips’, but you get the picture.
check that date: 1986.
here’s the story:
Donald was always creeping around other people’s studios, Simon always used to say . . he got his ‘primal’ flower painting silhouette from me, and we know what he did with the Enger Bros. imagery, but – to get to the point, the Dan Asher lift – was quite . . black and white, no grey areas of ownership.
no . . he said, she said. I did it first, etc. etc.
and this is the truth.
DONALD bought a whole bunch of small charcoal, or black oil-stick drawings of faces, from Dan, in the early 80’s, maybe 1984 ? he then projected them onto big canvasses, and reproduced them large & verbatim, except for the scale, and then took them to Europe, and exhibited them, under his own name, of course – for sale at some gallery booth in an art fair in Europe, maybe in Cologne ? Berlin ?
thinking, nobody would know. there was no google engine back then, and anyways that was just his modus operatus – just like all ‘appropriation’ masters, KOONS and PRINCE etc.
haha, if Dan doesn’t scrape up the dough, and fly over to see the fair.
talk about shit hitting the fan.
Dan was so crazy, you’d have to be a real fool to mess with him. and maybe that’s why he was, crazy mad. part of the downside of autism, is people thinking clueless means dumb.
and this is one time, the BIG MONEY did NOT win out.
the . . BIG RAGE won out.
and if Donald wanted to feel safe heading out to the Red Bar – on any given night – he did what he had to, he shelled out something like $60,000 to appease Dan.
that was a lot of money back in the 80s.
when the rents were cheap, sushi was not blown wide open dollar-wise . . and Pearl Paint was the go-to art supply emporium. and cheap . .
like I said, DAN wasn’t always broke, he just knew how to go broke. and, fast.
spending money was like an art form to him. he could spend it faster than anybody I’ve ever meet then or since.
well, Josh Harris comes in a close second . . oh god, just my luck, all the guys I depended on for work, were mad crazy with the money.
c’est la vie,
duppy don’t you come abotherin’ – me.
but you see that lawyer, go for the throat.
it’s the damn lawyers, rockin’ the boat.