sutton044

Copyright has nothing to do with art. Those who believe otherwise are romantic dreamers who overcomplicate this field of law. No doubt you will have heard or read this before. Perhaps you might even share this view. If so, Daniel McClean ’s latest edited collection, ' A rtist, Authorship & Legacy: A Reader’ , may be just what you need to nuance your point of view.  The ambiguity of copyright’s relationship with art, or art with copyright, is precisely what this book is about. McClean brings together twenty-two essays by different authors, who collectively examine both the overlaps and gaps between legal and artistic authorship, this against the backdrop of the day-to-day practice of commissioning, buying, exhibiting and curating artworks. The collection executes this task brilliantly by framing each chapter in relation to a particular event or dispute which took place in the open (in courts, museums or the press) or behind the semi-closed doors of the art world via ‘open secr...