Archive of Henry Lydiate‘s Artlaw column, published in Art Monthly since 1976. Have a legal question about your career? Check our Directory or send us a legal query.
Editions or Series: Picking Up The Pieces
A century ago Marcel Duchamp toyed with the idea of creating a box to hold notes and sketches for his works which eventually resulted in The Green Box, 1934, containing notes for the…
What is Sculpture?
On 27 July 2011 the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) handed down a landmark judgment that decided the legal meaning of sculpture in UK copyright law. The significance of this decision is far reaching, because UK law operates…
Is my work protected by copyright or design rights?
This is a question that is not always easy to answer as there is a significant overlap between the two. Own It have written a downloadable pdf that attempts to reply to…
Sotheby’s and Christie’s
The new year ushered in several important judicial decisions dealing with artlaw matters, including the Bacon Estate; the Sotheby’s and Christie’s so called ‘price fixing’ case; payments to artists of royalty fees by UK Universities; and Gilbert…
The Bacon Estate (1)
The new year ushered in several important judicial decisions dealing with artlaw matters, including the Bacon Estate; the Sotheby’s and Christie’s so called ‘price fixing’ case; payments to artists of royalty fees by UK Universities; and…
Performance Art and The Law
The resurgence of performance related artistic practices over the past decade raises complex aesthetic, legal and, at times, ethical questions regarding the protection, authorship and ownership of the ‘works’ generated through these artistic practices. The…
Deaccessioning Public Collections
During these straitened economic times increasing numbers of public museums and galleries around the world have been driven to consider deaccessioning works in their collections; and many have done so. There are clearly ethical and policy arguments…
The Length of Copyright
The Duration of Copyright and Rights in Performance Regulations 1995 implement EU Council Directive No 93/98/EEC and the European Economic Area 1993, which harmonise protection of copyright and certain related rights. In effect, they extend the…
National Studios Forum
The ‘Creating Places’ conference held at Tate Modern in July 2003 explored the role of studio workspace provision for artists in the UK (reported in this column AM269). It presented a comprehensive range of sector specific skills…
Tracing Work
Listen to me baby Wherever you may be I’m beggin’ over the radio Please come back to me – I’ve got a mind To move on down the line. * Many artists and galleries find great difficulty in…
In what circumstances can I sublet or share my studio space?
You must check that your lease permits either subletting (temporarily or permanently leaving your studio and renting it to someone else) or sharing before agreeing this with someone else.…
‘She’s nobody’s child; the law can’t touch her at all’
It’s dip. Show time again: a time for looking back over the past years work and exhibiting it for public view; a time also for looking forward to taking the…
Can I sell my copyright?
Copyright can only be ‘assigned’ (sold or given away) by the execution of a written document signed by the copyright owner. It is not advisable, however, to assign or otherwise dispose of your copyright over…
Appropriation Art and Fair Uses
‘Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.’ So wrote TS Eliot in The Sacred Wood in 1920. His epigram was probably adapted from Igor Stravinsky’s comment that ‘a good composer does not imitate; he steals’, as…
VAT minus Zero – no limit
VAT is a pain in the arts. My two recent columns on the subject – Vexing Art Toll? (AM No 24) and VAT Revisited (AM No 29) – have aroused so much interest and…
Dire Straits – outside the gallery
No lies he wouldn’t compromise No junk no bits of string And all the lies we subsidise That just don’t mean a thing I’ve got to say he passed away in obscurity And now…
Management of Creativity
There once was a man who said God Must think it exceedingly odd If He Finds that this tree Continues to be When there’s no one around in the Quad (Mgr Ronald Knox) Train journeys can be…
Public Exhibition Payments
Recently there has been increasing interest in the question of payments to artists whose work is exhibited in public. Any scheme devised would necessarily have legal implications; for this reason, and as a contribution to a wider…