Category Archives: Artists

A shredded Banksy…but still a Banksy?

Posted on: October 11, 2018 by Emily Gould

Following the excitement of the sale of the self-destructing Banksy last Friday night about which we reported on Monday, it has all gone rather quiet. We half-expected to hear more, perhaps from the aggrieved purchaser or maybe even from those ‘in the know’ to reassure us that it had all been one big hoax. Maybe […]

Rare Stik sculpture to be auctioned for charity tackling homelessness

Posted on: September 19, 2018 by Emily Gould

We’re delighted to share with you news that a rare sculpture by IAL friend and internationally renowned street artist Stik will be auctioned tomorrow, 20th September, by Christies, London, in aid of the charity Cardboard Citizens. Stik originally created the piece, entitled ‘Up on the Roof’, for a 2009 exhibition, and from 2010 it dwelt […]

Conservation Practice: Visibly Invisible!

Posted on: March 21, 2018 by William Hawkes

An article in The Art Newspaper by Ben Luke on the 15th of March 2018 poses an interesting question regarding the work of the conservator. The article concerned the condition of the painting depicting Christ as Salvator Mundi, by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1500. This article raised the question “Should the […]

An important step towards asserting graffiti artists’ rights

Posted on: November 21, 2017 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

A recent finding of a jury in a Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York City,[1] has opened the door for greater protection for graffiti artists. At the core of disputes between graffiti artists and the real property owners their works adorn often lies the age-old debate as to whose property rights prevail: those of […]

Public domain and the internet

Posted on: May 24, 2017 by Alexander Herman

A number of issues arise when we use images of artistic works online. Here, I am referring to copyright and to the specific treatment of images of older works that may – or may not – have fallen into the public domain. Of course, once copyright has expired in a work, that work will enter the public […]

What is art? And should courts of law decide?

Posted on: February 28, 2017 by Alexander Herman

In Yasmina Reza’s 1994 play ‘Art‘, three male friends spend much time discussing the question, ‘What is art?’ The reason is that one of the characters, Serge, has bought a work from a popular contemporary artist that is more or less just a white canvas. More or less, because there is some debate as to whether […]

Stik street art work raises £35,000 to save community arts centre

Posted on: December 20, 2016 by Emily Gould

Just to let everybody know that IAL friend Stik has managed to raise £35,000 for the Magpie Social Centre in Bristol through the sale of a street art piece, entitled ‘Magpie’. Stik had originally painted the piece on the wall of the building occupied by the Centre in 2009. The Centre is a community arts […]

Stranger than fiction…Authenticity and Intrigue

Posted on: September 4, 2016 by Emily Gould

Two fascinating stories from the art world have captured our imagination over the past couple of weeks. Whilst seemingly unrelated, both have the thorny issue of authorship and authenticity at their heart and, coincidentally, share a Scottish connection. The first is the news that Scottish artist, Peter Doig, has won his court battle against a […]

Richard Prince’s ‘New Portraits’…another twist in the tale

Posted on: August 30, 2016 by Emily Gould

Our attention has been drawn yet again, this week, to the vexed question of ‘fair use’ as an exception to copyright protection under US law. When is a new work of art which draws on an existing copyright work acceptable, and when does it overstep the mark? The saga surrounding well-known appropriation artist Richard Prince […]

Up your street: a new perspective on street art?

Posted on: February 19, 2016 by Emily Gould

We tend to think of street art as highly contemporary – edgy, modern and up to the minute in its commentary on the social and political controversies of the day. But what about cave paintings, medieval etchings, scrawls on the walls of the ancient city of Pompeii? The once-widespread notion that graffiti and street art […]