The art world has a hatred relationship with commercial art – the field of advertising and product design, especially. Fine artists and street artists both have brought lawssuits against numerous retailers, including Alaska Airlines, American Eagle Outfitters, Coach, Epic Records, Fiat, General Motors, H&M, McDonald's, Mercedes-Benz, Moschino, Puma North America, Roberto Cavalli, Starbucks and The North Face, for making unauthorized use of copyrighted imagery.
However, many senior artists welcome the opportunity to license their images to advertisers and product manufacturers. Back in 2018, painter Kehinde Wiley signed a deal with Hollywood's Brillstein Entertainment Partners to represent film, television and endorsement. The deal involves working closely with Brillstein to identify guidance opportunities, options books, producing and developing their own materials, and working with other screenwriters and creators, in addition to licensing his work.
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Willie is not alone in this type of entrepreneurial effort. Jeff Koons, Vik Muniz, Julian Schnabel and Kara Walker all brought all licensed images to gift company Bernardaud, while Automobile manufacturer BMW owns a range of thirty-five art cars decorated with various artists, including David Hockney, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Jenny Holzer, Julie Mehretu, Arehretu, ar percceck andy penceck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey penck andy arey warehouse.
For artists who don't need to create anything new, licenses are usually free money, just allow existing images to be used for jewelry and puzzle puzzles, bars and bars, tablecloths and T-shirts. Kara Walker, in the case of Bernardaud promotion, the breasts and picky images on the white ceramic pitcher might introduce “slavery and racial discrimination in the South” while also raising the “a sense of inner paranoia that still exists throughout the United States – although the connection may be in trouble in some cases.
“You need a good rapport with people or companies to work with licensing,” New York painter Tom Christopher told Observer. He has licensed images of one or another, including Absolut Vodka tags, iPhone and iPad covers, snowboards, sneakers, dresses, and more recently the face of Ikepod watches. “You don’t want to use images on something ridiculous or something that will embarrass you.”
His deal with Christian-Louis Col, the owner of Ikepod, is 10% of the price of the watch, and is sold separately between $1,400 and $2,500. “They have been invoicing me for the past two years,” Christopher said. Over the course of a year, he received between $10,000 and $20,000 in licensing royalties.
The risk of confusion in the legal battle signal and unauthorized use
Licensed financial interests can sometimes lead to disputes with the artist’s family, foundations and heritage. Claude, one of Pablo Picasso's sons, is also the court enforcer of Picasso's legacy, authorizing the Picasso trademark (including the artist's name and signature) to be used in connection with Citroen's French auto company. This led to a lawsuit filed by the artist's granddaughter Marina Picasso, who declared that “she can't tolerate my grandfather and father's name and was used to selling something as mediocre as a car.”
Mara de Anda Romeo Pinedo, the great niece of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, has provided a temporary ban for a Panama-based licensing agency that represents the artist's heirs because it allows the artist's names and images to be used in alcoholic beverages, dolls and other products. The main crime product is Frida Kahlo Doll, which it made, as part of its “Inspiring Women” series. “It was supposed to be a Mexican doll, wearing more Mexican clothing, Mexican jewelry,” she asserted. Frida Kahlo Corporation filed its own lawsuit against Pinedo for offering Frida Kahlo Merch the same trademark for sale.
Money is not always a sufficient motivational factor. In 2023, attorneys representing the Joan Mitchell Foundation sent a cease-and-department letter to Louis Vuitton’s Paris headquarters, saying the fashion brand used the artist’s paintings in her nonprofit after her nonprofit repeatedly refused to approve its approval.
In 2018, British Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor reached an out-of-court settlement with the National Rifle Association, after his work briefly introduced his 2006 work. Cloud GateIn a television commercial located in downtown Chicago, the ad criticized gun control measures. turn out Cloud Gate Removed from further broadcast of the ad.
The 1997 court ruling sided with artists’ belief in Artist Faith Ringgold Church picnic In the early 1990s family box office situational comedy, used as a landscape, called “Roc”, it lasted for 26 seconds. HBO claimed that its use of the artist's image was accidental, but the Court of Appeal ruled that it constituted copyright infringement.
There are many companies working with artists to license images as products. Charles Riotto, executive director of the New York-based Licensing Industry Commodities Association, told Observer that “licensed art images are the fastest growing area in the licensing industry.” Back in the 1990s, at the annual trade show in Lima in June, there were only a few licensing agents who handled art. By 2000, there were about 100 art-oriented agencies, and now there are more than 200. “The licensee – the manufacturer – is like getting the idea of design because it's safer and cheaper than celebrities. Design won't be arrested in newspapers for being arrested after a fight in a bar.”
Marty Segelbaum, president and founder of MHS license, told Observer that his arrangement with the thirty or so artists he represents only involves limited use of images and that the artist retains the copyright and originals. “We don't process the originals, and we're happy if the artists can sell them,” he said.
Licensing represents an additional source of income for artists because its original cost limits the number of people who are able to buy images. The possibility of a large number of collectors moving the ladder from coffee cups to paintings and limited edition prints, regardless of the extent of the product’s “brand” to the artist. “Previously thought your work spreading over prints and products would dilute the value of the original, but in reality, the person who bought the painting might buy a coffee cup in the same image because it was interesting to have a coffee cup more frequently than the person who bought the cup,” Segelbaum said.
He said he thinks many artists who he thinks are suitable for the manufacturer’s products are worried that licensing means selling out or making themselves look too commercial. But this idea has changed over the past 25 years, especially since the 2008 recession. “Now the artist says, ‘What can I make money to do?’”
