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.
Commissions and the responsibilities they bring, part 1
You are an artist. A public body asks you to design an artwork for a public space or place. You are promised payment 'if it all works out'. You are flattered. How…
The Creative Act 2007
In April 1957 at the American Federation of Arts in Houston, Texas, Marcel Duchamp gave his now celebrated and all too brief talk ‘The Creative Act’: ‘Let us consider two important factors, the two poles of…
‘God help the Minister who meddles with Art’
Thus spoke the Liberal Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. I wonder if he’s turning in his grave? Now we have a Minister for the Arts with a voice in the Cabinet, perhaps the…
Private Views: Right Problem, Wrong Law
All too often artists and arts professionals look at a controversial image, conclude that the Law, specifically copyright law, must have something to say about it, must provide an answer. In the case of…
Beautiful Inside My Head Forever
‘The fine artist came to seem a near miraculous creator of value, transmuting relatively inexpensive materials into fabulously expensive commodities.’ Katy Siegel and Paul Mattick’s comment on the development of today’s art market place, in…
What if I want to use an image of a celebrity in my work?
In the UK there are no specific celebrity protection laws, but it is illegal to place the image of any living person within a derogatory context…
New Legal Rights
Parliament gives artists two new legal rights: to earn extra cash from their work; and to exert exclusive aesthetic control over it. ‘These rights are given to all artists for their lifetime and pass to their heirs…
Sensation and All That
Do the laws of freedom of speech apply to images? How do laws recognise cultural differences between different countries? Should everything be allowed to be exhibited? If not, how do we regulate? How do politics play…
Art after Death
For practitioners, what happens to their art after their death can be a significant issue. This section looks at some of the steps artists can take to plan for and protect the future of their artworks. What…
‘One for you, nineteen for me’
George Harrison's pre decimalisation crie de coeur is everyone's concern, particularly at this time of the year and especially in the arts when organisations and individuals are busy making up and presenting, accounts and…
The Present Status of Artlaw
What is the present status of Artlaw? Jacqueline Morreau is by no means alone in asking this leading question (Art Monthly No. 83, p.25). Since the demise of Artlaw Services in 1983, thousands of people…
Second Anniversary Edition
October 1978 marks the second anniversary of the birth of this column and of Art Monthly itself; it also sees the establishment of Artlaw Services Limited, a non profit distributing company limited by guarantee, registered as a…
Artists’ Residencies
At this time of global economic downturn, when governments across the world and especially in developed economies are committing vast sums of public money to prevent unemployment, some money is being ear marked to support artistic endeavour. This…
Charity
A charity is an organisation set up for exclusively charitable purposes, which carries out activities to achieve these purposes. A charity must be set up to help the public and not particular individuals. There are 13 charitable purposes, and the…
Sittin’, thinkin’, sinkin’, drinkin’
Sittin’, thinkin’, sinkin’, drinkin’, Wondrin ‘ what I’ll do when I’m through tonight. Smokin’, mopin’, maybe just hopin’…* It’s all very well being a fly on the wall, but you don’t often get a chance to…
Of ha’pennies and cakes – servicing public arts development
Deja vu was the last thing I expected to experience when I went to Leeds last month to contribute to the Public Arts seminary ‘Commissions and Contracts’ – a one day…
Art and Architecture
The art and architecture debate continues, with priority being given to the encouragement of collaboration and the desirability of obtaining large scale architectural commissions. The actual execution of this sort of work is less discussed, and could…
Flavin’s Fittings
In 1928 a US Customs Court in New York ruled that Brancusi’s sculpture Bird in Space, 1923, was a work of art, not an ‘article of utility’, which US Customs had decided it was. US photographer Edward Steichen…