Hope in Court

The Associated Press case against Shepard Fairey's use of the image of Obama would have gone to court today if they had not settled in January. The issue was whether Fairey had violated copyright in using the image. Though it seems obvious that he altered the image tremendously, and ought to have won the case, AP sued. The photojournalist who had taken the image did not mind that Fairey used it and did not think that AP should take action. He merely wanted recognition for the original photo, which is why he ever raised the issue.

I find the whole thing vaguely irritating in that Fairey is clearly an artist, while others continue to get away with their Warholian nonsense, like Mr. Brainwash. The Banksy film Exit Through the Giftshop is well worth seeing. Mr. Brainwash is a commercial success, and designed the cover to Madonna's album Celebration, but there is no one in the art world who can actually embrace the work Mr. Brainwash makes. As Banksy says in the film, "I used to think that everyone should make art. Now I am not so sure."

Well, I will say it because I am elitist. Not everyone should make art. Not everyone should be a doctor. Not everyone should go to college. Some people should embrace a simple life and we should all respect the enormous amount of trade work that goes to support this country. It is disrespecting that work, with the allusion that all should gain a white-collar, liberal arts education (a position that I think may come in reaction to soviet communism's idealism of blue collar work), which has reinforced cultural disparity. Mr. Brainwash should stop pretending he is an artist and go work at an ad agency. Not because ad agencies are not brilliant or creative, but because their work is....selling something beyond the art work itself and that is after all what Mr. Brainwash decided to do. He is his product, not the art work.