Artdeal!!
Richard
I know an artist colleague who got a
very tempting offer. An art buyer (an owner of many Hotels...) wanted
him to create paraphrases of a well known artist for his hotels. First
the buyer sounded like a great fantast. The well known artist takes
several 10th. of thousands $ (equivalent ) for one painting. After a
while the Hotel owner seem to be simply interested in just boasting
about the paintings to the customers of the hotels. It was a tempting
offer because he wanted several paintings and he offered several 10.000
$ for a number of paintings, ( maybe 2000 $/ each. size about 90cm.).
Now, the paintings should not be copies but "lookalikes" and my artist
friend would be able to do that as he has made some copies before when
attending art school! Is it prohibited to sell these kinds of works,
not signed? Is it morally justifiable to his career and integrity as an
artist to take this job? Is it ethical?
I´m interested to hear your point of views on this.
Thank´s
Richard
http://www.emeleus.nu/
Pcredeagle3
compromising the integrity of the other Artist's work or actually his I guess
is what I really mean, but I saw a site called www.aboutredeagle.com that was
pretty cool and he is Internationally known, you can contact him through his
site and he can probably give you better advice, good luck Gene
Andrew Werby
Richard wrote in message ...
>
>I know an artist colleague who got a
>very tempting offer. An art buyer (an owner of many Hotels...) wanted
>him to create paraphrases of a well known artist for his hotels. First
>the buyer sounded like a great fantast. The well known artist takes
>several 10th. of thousands $ (equivalent ) for one painting. After a
>while the Hotel owner seem to be simply interested in just boasting
>about the paintings to the customers of the hotels. It was a tempting
>offer because he wanted several paintings and he offered several 10.000
>$ for a number of paintings, ( maybe 2000 $/ each. size about 90cm.).
>Now, the paintings should not be copies but "lookalikes" and my artist
>friend would be able to do that as he has made some copies before when
>attending art school! Is it prohibited to sell these kinds of works,
>not signed?
[Is the buyer going to be satisfied to boast about unsigned paintings?
Especially if your friend's career advances, he will doubtless drop the name
of the painter. Secondly, if he doesn't sign them but delivers them
unsigned, what if someone later adds the name of the famous artist on whose
work they are based? Your friend, wittingly or not, might be an accessory to
the crime of art forgery and possible fraud. So it would be better to sign
them- although he could adopt a pseudonym to do so.]
>
Is it morally justifiable to his career and integrity as an
>artist to take this job? Is it ethical?
>I´m interested to hear your point of views on this.
>
>Thank´s
>Richard
>http://www.emeleus.nu/
[People's systems of morality differ, but I don't see why it would hurt his
career to do this as an exercise. I presume we're talking about paintings
"in the manner of" famous artists, like Van Gogh, Matisse, etc? That would
be legal, I'd think, as long as there was no intent to deceive. Artist's
Moral Rights (droit moral) laws are on the books in some places, which give
artists some continuing interest in the fate of their works- I'm not sure if
any would apply in his area.
If these are original works inspired by some long-dead master, all is well,
and your friend can apply for copyrights on them. If on the other hand, they
are "derivative" of a specific work of art by a living artist (or one dead
less than 50 years) the copyright holder (or her heirs) can deem this an
infringement and go after your friend. As you may know if you've ever rented
a video, there are both civil and criminal penalties for copyright
infringement.
As to your friend's artistic integrity, he'll have to work that out for
himself. Some people feel that their identity as an artist is bound up with
doing things a certain way, exploring certain issues, using certain
materials. For someone like this, changing any of that, even temporarily,
for a monetary reward might give them nightmares for years. Others welcome
any chance to get paid for doing art, and can make projects like that into a
learning experience.
Speaking of which, make sure he gets half in advance... ]
Andrew Werby
http://unitedartworks.com
RBrac53660
>>very tempting offer.
Can it pay the rent? If so do it