Photographer's Lament
What is wrong with the art world?? How does a reproduction of a photograph by another worker (I hesitate to call him a photographer) become valuable art? Is it not decadent to reward the copyist (is "thief" accurate?) rather than the original artist?
NY Times reports on exhibit at Guggenheim Museum in NY of work by Richard Prince. His work consists of photocopies of *other photographer's published works* including some from the famous Marlboro ad series by Jim Krantz. The museum sells photo posters at $9.95 and Prince's work has auctioned as high at $1.2 million.
Why, if the original images are good (and they are although their use to promote smoking was evil) don't they use the original artwork?? Is this decadent or what!
What does this say about copyright protection or the lack thereof? And when an artist / photographer does work for a client, and the image becomes valuable, shouldn't the artist profit too?
If the Copy Is an Artwork, Then What’s the Original?
By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: December 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/arts/design/06prin.html?_r=1&ref=arts&...
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Comments
Sue 'em AND the Guggenheim AND the Auction Houses
The owners of all those images should sue Prince, certainly in civil court and, if appropriate, criminal court. Further, the Guggenheim, the auction houses and the galleries that showed this cretin's work should also be sued as co-conspirators. How is it that the entire art world bought into enlargements of REAL photographers' images as "art" without ever confronting Prince or THEMSELVES with the obvious: that this was stealing? Apparently, even the Guggenheim judges art by how much people are willing to pay for it or talk about it, as long as it isn't actually being used to sell something when they hang it on their walls. If people like the images, let them get in touch with the person who created them and pay them to blow it up, if that's how the buyer wants it to look on their wall. In fact, Jim Krantz and the others ought to start an online database where anyone who wants to can buy their images from them - not Prince. That ought to put Prince out of the photo copy business.
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