Appropriating Images for Art: When is it okay?

[Michelle Pajak-Reynolds]

One of my favorite weekend pleasures is Studio 360.  A recent show discussed the issue of appropriation in art, in particular the case between Richard Prince and Patrick Cariou.  I know many of you appropriate images in your work and thought you might enjoy this piece and find the accompanying interview with artist Penelope Umbrico and lawyer Michael Rips interesting. Enjoy---Michelle

Source: Studio 360 Appropriating Images for Art: When is it okay?

Listen to the interview

Appropriating Images for Art: When is it okay?

Last year the artist Richard Prince was sued by Patrick Cariou, a photographer, for copyright infringement. Prince had used dozens of Cariou’s pictures — arty portraits of Rastafarians in Jamaica — in his paintings. This practice of appropriation, incorporating other people's work into new artworks, is well established in the art world, and Prince has based a successful career on it. But a federal judge ruled for Cariou last year, and if Prince loses his appeal, a swath of contemporary art making will become illegal.

Kurt Andersen spoke with attorney Michael Rips and artist Penelope Umbrico about the implications for the case. 

Rips represented Jeff Koons in a very similar case in the 1990s. (Koons had used a cute tourist postcard — a couple holding puppies — to create a multimillion-dollar sculpture.) These cases aren’t easy to argue, Rips tells Kurt. "At the end of the day, however much you appropriate — whatever you're commenting on — before you can have a copyright violation you have to show damages. You have to show that the person from whom you borrowed has been economically injured." Rips feels that the markets in which Cariou and Prince sell their work are quite distinct, so he isn't convinced Cariou experienced injury.

Penelope Umbrico appropriates images from the internet for much of her work. In her series called Suns (From Sunsets) from Flickr she used (without permission) bits of hundreds of amateur photographs. Umbrico contends that because her work is fragmentary and the original image so ubiquitous, it doesn't make sense "to ascribe an individual authorship in the original photograph."

And while Richard Prince's appropriation of Cariou's Rastafarians may be more obvious, she defends his use of the photos. “Prince is using that as an aesthetic device in his work. He is not interested in authoring images, he's interested in making paintings and employing images to be active inside the frame of his paintings."

If Prince loses the appeal, appropriation art like Umbrico’s will be on shakier ground legally. But she insists she won't change her method. "It'll make me more adamant about working this way."

 

(Left) Photograph by Patrick Cariou from his 2000 book Yes Rasta, (right) painting from Richard Prince's 2008 "Canal Zone" series (powerHouse Books, Gagosian Gallery)

 

Detail from Suns (From Sunsets) from Flickr, Penelope Umbrico, 2006-ongoing (Penelope Umbrico)

 

GUESTS:

 Michael Rips and Penelope Umbrico

PRODUCED BY:

 Derek John and Michele Siegel