Thursday 24 February 2011

Quinn: Inspiration vs Plagiarism?

Marc Quinn has caused uproar this week, by accusing Swiss fashion house Akris of stealing designs from his paintings and directly using them in their new collection, the Evening Standard reports.

Quinn is particularly well known for his sculpture work - his self-portrait cast in his own frozen blood; his Fourth Plinth work 'Alison Lapper Pregnant', but has also produced a series of vibrant flower paintings.

The paintings were originally exhibited at the White Cube Gallery - Akris' designer, Albert Kriemler, readily admits to visiting them and being 'inspired'. Quinn however feels that his imagery has been taken directly, and says that his studio assistants have matched every piece in the fashion collection to sections from his paintings.



The artist said: "We're not talking about one image in a dress. We're talking about pieces from the Akris collection being made from images copied from my paintings.
"To take someone's copyrighted material and turn it into a commercial product without permission is unacceptable." The artist, from Belsize Park, added: "It's damaging to my ability to use my own images to make clothing. It's destroying potential in the future. If someone's inspired by my work and they go and do something completely different, that's fine. If they take an image directly, it's not fine."

For more on Quinn's flower paintings, follow this link to a Christie's interview. 

No comments:

Post a Comment