break
Bloggin' will most likely be difficult, but I'll see what I can do.
Try to keep James Murdoch out of jail ...at least until I get over there, will you?
Labels: break
art | politics | gossip | tough love
Labels: break
Artist Janine “Jah Jah” Gordon has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against photographer Ryan McGinley for copyright infringement, arguing that 150 of McGinley’s photographs, including several used in an ad campaign for Levi’s, a co-defendant in the suit, are “substantially based” on Gordon’s original work.The defendant's lawyers have stated that the images in question “do not look alike in the slightest.” And based on the example used at the top of the Artnet.com article, I would say that any comparison seems definitely overshadowed by the thousands of differences:According to Gordon’s complaint, the trouble began nearly 10 years ago, when both Gordon and McGinley had exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art -- Gordon in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, and McGinley in his break-through solo exhibition “The Kids Are Alright” the following year. McGinley’s proximity to Gordon’s work “during the preparation and display of the Whitney exhibition in which he participated,” her lawyer argues, gave him “total and complete access to view and examine the Gordon images featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial.”
Both parties have also shown at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt as well as at Ratio 3 gallery in San Francisco; Ratio 3 along with Peter Hay Halpert Fine Arts and Team Gallery, which show McGinley's photographs, are also defendants in the suit. Gordon's complaint alleges that the galleries “had the right, authority and ability to control or supervise McGinley’s actions, failures and omissions.”
McGinley’s guilt was compounded, at least in Gordon’s mind, in 2003, when she ran into him at a PS1 opening and he responded with “a fearful gasp and speedy retreat into the crowd,” according to the complaint.
Among the disputed images is a black-and-white shot of a woman flipping her head back, hair in motion. Gordon’s lawyers say that McGinley’s photo, taken 15 years later, copies her subject matter, its centered composition and its spotlighting, which in both cases illuminates the left side of the body and shadows the right.
Gordon’s lawyers...are putting forward a relatively expansive interpretation of copyright law, arguing that concept cannot be differentiated from expression. “Unless an artist is content merely to represent a pre-existent object (e.g. a building) or scene, it is part of his task as artist to exercise his imagination and in so doing he may create a pattern of ideas for incorporation in his finished work.The image above is the most similar of the ones Artnet juxtaposes (scroll to bottom of that article to see other comparisons), but yes, the two figures are in relatively the same pose. But that looks to me like its only similarity. Artinfo.com provides more side-by-side comparisons.
"This idea-pattern may be as much part of his work, and deserving of copyright protection, as the brushstrokes, pencil-lines, etc. The true proposition is that there is no copyright in a general idea, but that an original combination of ideas may [be protected],” Gordon’s complaint argues, citing the copyright reference book The Modern Law of Copyright and Designs.
A photograph captures a specific moment in time. A photograph of one girl does not equal a photograph of another girl. McGinley is not a re-photographer. He is an artist who creates dynamic situations in which sometimes thousands of photographs are taken and only one chosen. His editorial choices – which photographs he chooses to actually produce – are, of course, informed by his encyclopedic knowledge of the field in which he works. The photographers that he admires, whether well known or anonymous, have always been openly discussed in his numerous interviews. Gordon’s name has never been among them because she is, quite simply, not an artist he thinks about.That last line actually resonates more when you read the previous explanation of McGinely's influences:
Among the artists named in reviews and essays about McGinley over the years one will find: Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn, Man Ray, Alfred Steiglitz, Peter Hujar, Edward Weston, Catherine Opie, William Eggleston, Ansel Adams, and Dash Snow. Janine Gordon’s name has never once appeared as a comparison. These references, by numerous preeminent critics and curators, were not made to cast doubt on McGinley’s artistic process but rather to describe the status to which his work aspires. McGinley’s photographs sit within an art historical context and, as his art develops, this context becomes larger. The number of photographers to whom his work relates grows exponentially as he continues to move in different directions. Likewise, the number of younger artists whose work now bears the strong mark of McGinley’s influence also increases.I've always maintained that the "importance" of any artist is best measured by the number of other artists he/she influences. The original report notes that McGinley was in a position to see Gordon's work up close during the installation of one show, but it seems to me a stretch to suggest that means he's spent the same amount or more time looking at Gordon as he clearly has Goldin, Opie, Clark, Tillmans, Pierson, and Snow. And the list could go on. The approach reflects, as Freire notes, a zeitgeist.
I had done a studio visit with Gordon in the late 90s and found the work not only ingenuous and derivative but also so badly produced that it appeared, to my eyes, unmarketable.Of course, Gordon, like everyone else with a complaint has the right to have her case heard in court and not tried in the pages of magazines or blogs. I'm quite sure there is more than one side to this story. Stay tuned....Gordon has repeatedly sent emails that attack McGinley’s integrity; emails that claim he is a thief; emails that actually threaten him with physical harm and, in several cases, with death. She has acted more like a stalker than as a fellow artist. Her case has so far cost the defendants (who include the artist and three galleries that have exhibited his work) somewhere north of 100,000 USD in legal fees. And it hasn’t even gone to trial yet. Gordon, it seems, is quite litigious. She has in the past sued rappers Dr. Dre and 50 Cent for having stolen lyrics from her.
Labels: art making, copyright, fair use, gallerist-artist relationship
As usual, Laura L. Fotusky attended Sunday morning services at Union Center Christian Church, which she described as “a nondenominational, Bible-preaching church” in Union Center, N.Y., a town about seven miles northwest of Binghamton. Her life is about to change significantly. But on Sunday Ms. Fotusky described herself as at peace.Haberman offers Fotusky and Centi some fairly generous cover for their decisions in his post, painting them both as nice people who just happen to have strong opinions:
“I don’t really have any regrets,” she in a telephone interview. “I feel like I did what I needed to do.”
What she did was to announce her resignation as the town clerk of nearby Barker. Her religious beliefs, Ms. Fotusky said, made it impossible for her in good conscience to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Her last day in a job that she has held for four years is Thursday, three days before New York’s same-sex marriage law goes into effect.
“In Acts 5:29,” she wrote to the Barker town board last week, “it states, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’ ” And it is clear to her, she said, that the Bible defines marriage as solely the union of a man and a woman.
As best as can be determined, hers was the first resignation of conscience since the New York law was passed last month. It wasn’t the last. On Thursday, Rosemary Centi, the town clerk in Guilderland, N.Y., outside Albany, said she would stop presiding over wedding ceremonies (a function that Ms. Fotusky does not perform in Barker).
Ms. Centi said she would continue as clerk, and would issue marriage licenses to everyone who was eligible, but she could no longer be Guilderland’s marriage officer. As a Roman Catholic, she said, she felt that she could not perform the actual rituals for same-sex couples.
Undoubtedly, some will denounce these women as bigots. But others will find them admirable for standing by their beliefs.Now here's the thing. I would respect Ms. Fotusky's solution to handling the conflict between her conscience and what the law would begin asking of her, if she had refused to comment in the press about it. If she wasn't taking advantage of others' interest in her decision to broadcast opinions that she must understand will lessen the joy felt by gay couples around the state and to proselytize (with Fotusky's later comments such as “We’re just trusting God” and “The Lord’s going to provide for me and take care of me” and "We ought to obey God rather than men," she is clearly using the attention her resignation brought her to promote her own faith.) In this context, that is a political act, and as such opens her up to political feedback. Had she not wanted such feedback, she could have simply answered "No Comment."
Undoubtedly, some will denounce these women as bigots. But others will find them admirable for standing by their beliefs.It's not either/or. One can, in general, have admiration for people who stand by their beliefs (Haberman paints Fotusky as a hero for "putting her money where her mouth is") and yet still differentiate certain actions as evidence of bigotry.
"A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs."To be so obstinately devoted to one's religious prejudices that you're willing to exhibit intolerance in such a public way seems a perfect description of someone who resigns rather than do their job over gay marriage licenses. Ms. Fotusky gives one clue as to what it would have meant for her to stay on and issue gay marriage licenses. Discussing her job as clerk she noted:
“It was a wonderful experience,” she said. “I loved it. I loved the challenge, and loved meeting people, and loved being friendly to people. So I’m going to miss that.”To be friendly to the gay people who would begin applying for marriage licenses was apparently asking too much of Ms. Fotusky.
Labels: politics
Labels: art practice, art world
The News Corporation’s decision to shut down the British tabloid The News of the World on Thursday did little to silence the growing uproar over revelations that the newspaper had hacked into the voice mails of private citizens.Indeed, Murdoch's bid to buy BSkyB now looks to face serious delays and possibly insurmountable hurdles:
In fact, it may have only fueled the outrage.
An outpouring of suspicion and condemnation came from all directions on Thursday, and was directed chiefly at the News Corporation’s chairman, Rupert Murdoch, a figure as powerful as he is polarizing.
The British media establishment, Facebook and Twitter users and even Mr. Murdoch’s own employees questioned his move. Some said it was a ploy to salvage government approval of the News Corporation’s potentially lucrative controlling stake in the satellite company British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB.
Of course no one expects any of this to distract Murdoch from his particularly sleazy brand of Sunday yellow journalism for long. Word is there are already plans to have his other UK rag, The Sun, begin publishing on Sundays to fill in the gap left by the News of the World. In fact, someone just purchased the URL www.sunonsunday.co.ukBBC business editor Robert Peston understands that Ofcom [the UK media regulator] will not launch an inquiry immediately.
"It will want to allow the police to continue their investigation for a while longer, before making its own assessment," he said.
Ofcom is deeply concerned by recent revelations about the NoW, he added.
"[Ofcom] is likely to make a statement later today, I am told, which will make it clear that it regards evidence that the News of the World's newsroom was out of control for many years as relevant to a judgement on whether News Corporation would be a fit-and-proper owner of BSkyB," our correspondent said.
Domain name:Of course, it could be a clever cybersquatter, but watch that space.
sunonsunday.co.uk
Registrant:
Mediaspring
Registrant type:
UK Individual
Registrant type:
UK Individual
Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.
Registrar:
Webfusion Ltd t/a 123-reg [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 05-Jul-2011
Renewal date: 05-Jul-2013
Last updated: 07-Jul-2011
Labels: politics, traditional media
Few 20th-century artists corroborated as insistently Schiller’s assertion that “all art is dedicated to joy.”"Jerry Saltz Celebrate the Life and Art of Cy Twombly"
Twombly’s fusing of thought, mark-making, narrative, history, myth, and formalism made me see that there is no such thing as purely abstract or representational art. He’s the artist who made me see that all art is equally abstract and that something as simple as handwriting and scribbling, unleashed, can be art.The Economist: The Art of Cy Twombly: Hypnotic scribbles and abstract allusions
Indeed it is this divisiveness—this singular ability to excite—that has helped to secure his place as one of America's most important postwar painters.Christopher Masters: Cy Twombly obituary
American artist who drew on the high culture of the past to forge a distinctive, at times thrilling, body of work.This morning, however, barely two full days after this giant breathed his last, when those of us who marveled at his vision are still processing the loss, I get the following descriptive summary of his life's work via email:
Cy Twombly, the world's 6th most valuable living artist and 49th most valuable artist overall, has passed away yesterday at the age of 83, some 56 days after seeing an all-time record for his art set at Christie's New York auction in May of this year.Note that there is nothing at all about his cultural importance (although I guess one could assert that it's implied in the sales tallies).
With 28 artworks listed in Skate's Top 5000 , Twombly has seen over US $200 million being paid for his art at auctions during his lifetime (his more valuable artworks eligible for Skate's Top 5000 alone being worth $136 million at the day of Twombly's death).
Labels: art market, values
Labels: happy holidays
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The Chadwicks
WINKLEMAN GALLERY
621 West 27th Street
June 16–July 29
In William Gibson’s seminal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, the protagonist Case enlists the help of a street gang called the Panther Moderns who create “random acts of surreal violence.” Triggering chaos by simulating terrorist attacks with fabricated threats, the group’s tactics prove that in an age of constant and immediate information dissemination, misinformation alone can be wielded as weapon. Similarly, in “Furling the Spanker: Masterworks from the Chadwicks’ Nautical Collection,” Lytle Shaw and Jimbo Blachly assert that misinformation, too, can be wielded as an art form.
Framing themselves as the archivists of the Chadwick family legacy, Shaw and Blachly meticulously gather and restore false artifacts, embellishing details from history and building a narrative, filling in gaps where they see fit. The Chadwicks, as the story goes, were a distinguished lineage in eighteenth-century British society who saw the height of their preeminence during colonial times, but whose golden age has long since passed. This exhibition––the Chadwicks’ second at Winkleman Gallery––is populated by nautical sketches, shipwreck memorials, and a scale model–cum-bar of the historical ship the HMS Victory. In one of the series, “Contemporary Sterns,” 2007–2009, vertical diptychs of aquamarine images of ruddy canal boats are juxtaposed against black text that relates a broken narrative––snippets “from the family archive”––told through arcane nautical jargon so faithfully re-created as to be comedic. Attempting to decode the language is futile, but the words themselves bob up and down like seasick poetry: THE MIZZEN TOPSAIL and THE LEE SCUPPERS BREAST-HIGH.
The show is littered with these detailed and purposeful “historical reinaccuracies.” Creating what is at once a caricature of what could have been and a fabrication of extreme nonsense, the artists themselves present an exaggerated portrayal of reality so accurate and idiosyncratic that it becomes absurd. Blurring the line between history and balderdash, the Chadwicks’ saga leaves one to wonder––could Jimbo Blachly really be the cocurator’s true name?— Margaret Knowles
Labels: gallery artists' exhibitions, review