09th May 2008
Unauthorized: Maureen Gallace at 303 Gallery (The Armory Show 2006)
I’m posting these two photos of two paintings by Maureen Gallace taken by artist Mark Barry during the press preview at The Armory Show 2006 precisely because 303 Gallery claims they own “the copyright to the work and all public display of images, including web content.” See Barry Hoggard’s 303 Gallery – protecting its artists from the internet. What would 303 Gallery do if one of its artistss works wound up in a Louise Lawler?
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Mark Barry: Maureen Gallace at 303 Gallery (The Armory Show 2006)
The gallery also claims, “The reason galleries don’t want these kinds of photos online is because they are horrible reproductions. We spend thousands of dollars having work professionally photographed so that we can show the work as it should be shown – well-lit, properly exposed, color corrected – both online and in print.” OK, so I did a little quick color correction in Photoshop (thanks to George Rodart), and rotated them one pixel counter-clockwise. Besides, it’s just documentation of art objects at a particular time and place, certainly not the real thing. And now the artist’s and the gallery’s name is contained in one more searchable page on the web, which is simply another point in the art world popularity context.
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Mark Barry: Maureen Gallace at 303 Gallery (The Armory Show 2006), color-corrected and rotated
Let’s forget about whether or not the photographer and web site maintain post a correctly colored photo. The plain and simple fact is that the gallery is entitled to look out for the interests of the copyright holder, the artist. Members of the press were forewarned at the Armory Show that no photo should be taken without the advance permission of the exhibitor. It doesn’t appear that 303 Gallery gave permission to the photographer/blogger. The photos should be removed from the blogger’s site.
(I’ll approve this post for now, but I don’t like anonymous posting- I like to know who I’m talking to. Please send me an email and tell me who you are, or post again with a name. Otherwise, future posts will not be allowed. Thanks for understanding. CA)
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