freedom of art? - or theft?!
jeanette hayes, “one of the 5 most important new artists in new york city” - a "social media maven" with a "future as bright as her aura" - or so says the internet in numerous gushing articles - but the flickering flame of her bright future snuffed out when someone noticed the slight similarities of a couple of her latest paintings to the art of suehiro maruo
well, let us hope “snuffed out” - generally, unless you're richard prince or jeff koons, recovery is unlikely over transgressions like this - it’s forever an albatross strung around the artist’s neck - the hating never ends - especially if they continue denying their crimes - mijn schatje, a previous artist accused of plagiarism, is now a chef in brighton apparently - but there’s something highly suspect about this hayes woman - a nobody who has done nothing of note being featured everywhere from vogue to the new york times - all excessively fawning all over her - and barely any of these articles even show her painting! - what’s going on here?
personally i’m of the cynical opinion all her publicity, her 28k followers and her verified badge etc have all been bought by mummy and daddy or whoever - come on now, why would instagram even consider awarding her an official blue tick?
most of this artistic-force-to-be-reckoned-with’s work seems to be cartoons montaged atop some kinda contrasting background - somewhat amateur and hardly groundbreaking - it’s been done by helnwein, murakami and koons, among numerous other - it’s a lame cheap shot as far as “contemporary art” is concerned - it’d be nice to know her reasons for making these traced maruo reproductions - simply done for the controversy or is she really so stupid and out of it she thought no one would notice? - the spoilt entitled snowflake hasn’t responded to the outrage beyond clamping her hands over her ears and making all her social media private
a brief clip on youtube sets forth her obnoxious position all too clearly: [inaudible question] “whatever - the internet - i don’t care - everything is everyones - when you put something on the internet it’s mine - and this goes for images, tweets, videos, anything… i’ll take it - and, um, make it mine - thank you” - this said without the remotest trace of irony! - she’s protected and considers herself unaccountable so why should she care?
her gallery similarly doesn’t give a shit - the same point blank refusal to enter into dialogue - statements squeezed out of them on instagram display a frankly alarming indifference and lack of respect for artistic integrity (from a gallery!!) - “appropriation has been a form of artwork for a lot longer than any of us have been in the art world. I don't even think a response is worth the time” - um, i believe appropriation in art goes a bit deeper than merely copying another artist’s work, without credit, and passing it off as your own - when grilled on this ignorance the gallery responded with “i don't see the need to expand on this any further” - needless to say they deleted all negative comments re the hayes images, blocked the posters, and disabled any further comments - censorship says hi
i made a price enquiry re one of the paintings but as yet no answer (predictably!) - so professional - what exactly do galleries do for their 50% cut?!
suehiro maruo has been notified but somehow i can’t see him taking this to court
postscript - 2 weeks later:
the gallery never responded to me (of course) but i heard elsewhere the asking price is $9500 for these poor maruo copies
a statement from maruo (?) was made via the official suehiro maruo tumblr (following a screenshot of a trevor brown tweet):
"...Mass plagiarism destroys the uniqueness of art, especially when considered as your own. Becomes vicious and repetitive to those who does not have enough room for self-expression / free-will.
It has happened months ago..."
a little unclear but, as expected, it appears no legal action being taken - the fake hack hayes has got away with it : (
there's still unrest on twitter - they seem there more offended by a small shintaro kago tracing - the "it girl"s twitter and instagram are back up and seeing quite a few "hate" comments - she's blocking all the posters but curiously not deleting the messages - i presume in an effort to gain supporter sympathy? - or more likely reporting everyone and needs to keep the evidence
