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A Million Distortions is a Statistic

By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.

Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento spots another case of "institutional censorship and curatorial alteration," this time in New York: "After complaints to the city Buildings Department, and concern from the Urkainian community in the East Village, Cooper Union removed a giant banner with a reproduction of a Picasso drawing of Joseph Stalin" that had been put up by Norwegian artist Lene Berg. As Sergio points out, the case is reminiscent of a similar incident at UCLA last month.

From a VARA point of view, the issue seems to be whether the banner was one element of a single, larger work of art (in which case its removal would seem to be a distortion or modification of that larger work) or, instead, was one work in a multi-work exhibition (in which case it would probably not be a VARA violation, though it may well still be wrong). It's not quite clear from the news report. The lede says Berg "included the banner as part of her one-woman art installation," but a statement put out by the school notes that "the gallery component of the show ? two videos and two book projects ? ... will be closed until further notice." The School of Art's website has also been describing it as "an exhibition" (rather than "a work").

Full post as published by The Art Law Blog on November 10, 2008 (boomark / email).