This is pretty crass. Tyler already posted it (Don't miss his image), but I got the email too and wanted to share.
We would like to bring to your attention a fraudulent situation or at the very least, a misrepresentation.The artist Jack Pierson has been making what he calls "word sculptures" for over 15 years now. The works are composed of found and retrieved signage from locations as diverse as Las Vegas casinos to defunct 42nd Street movies palaces. In a catalogue representing the collection of the Whitney Museum, they are described as "ready-made objects to express the pathos underlying the American Dream -- a pathos embodied in the mismatched letters of old movie marquees and commercial signs from which his work is created... His found letters are, in a sense, discarded dreams, their original purpose long forgotten."
These works have been documented in numerous books chronicling contemporary art and are in the collections of the Whitney Museum, The Musée dArt Contemporain in France, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. They have also been published in box sets of postcards available at many museum bookshops.
Around a year or so ago, imitations or forgeries of these works began to appear in Barneys clothing stores throughout the country saying such things as "fabulous, courageous, and outrageous." They are formally weak plagiarized versions of Jack Piersons work and we want you to know that they are not by Jack Pierson. Many people have assumed they are. They are, in fact, made by Simon Doonan, the chief window dresser at Barneys. Jack Pierson has asked that he remove them but he has refused.
We regret this lack of integrity on the part of Simon Doonan and Barneys. They obviously have no respect for artists or the art world.
Sincerely,
John Cheim
Here is an image of a real one, provided in the gallery's email:
Jack Pierson DESIRE/DESPAIR, 1996
Jack Pierson's show at Cheim and Read opens at the end of this month.
For future reference, the store is "Barneys" not "Barney's."
I walked by Barney's in Soho only yesterday and mentally applauded them for investing in Pierson's work for their space there. A few feet later it did occur to me as highly unlikely I had just seen real Pierson's and then of course I was crestfallen, but figured what could the artist do? My thought process went like this: The fakes don't replicate the words of any of his real pieces (or do they?)...and it's hard to own a vocabulary that was itself originally appropriated...and, perhaps, most importantly, only people familiar with Jack's work would likely assume the text was a parody/homage of any sort. Still, I see why C&R are upset and would be myself.
The revenge, it seems to me, is similar to how Exene Cervanka responded to bootleg X t-shirts...she copied the bootleg designs and sold them on her own website. Jack should do something similar to Barneys...maybe then they'll get it.
I think the use of letters, words and vocabulary is nothing new in the artworld and may be used and repeated by everyone. I am quite sure, that similiar artworks (of course other words, other compositions etc.) like of Pierson had been made all over the world long since Dada, without even knowing of Pierson.
Use a more complex vocabulary like a Cezanne had used in his time instead, maybe ? It reminds me on a recent struggle between two german companies on the rights on the word "Volks-" (people's) like Volks-(wagen). Thats absurd and sad.
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF THE WORD "HOMAGE"? YOU SHOULD BE GLAD THAT MR. DOONAN HAD THE KEEN EYE TO COPY THE WORK OF AN OBSCURE (TO MOST OF THE WORLD)ARTIST. IT SHOWS HIS DISCRIMINATING TASTES. HE ONLY COPIES FROM THE BEST. YOU SHOULD BE PAYING HIM FOR THE FREE PUBLICITY. MR. PIERSON'S NAME HAS PENETRATED INTO THE ZEITGIEST. APPLAUD MR. DOONAN....NOW!
Hey Rob. You might want to check your caps lock. I think it's stuck.
Do you think somebody can "own" a general idea, or a general method in the art world? JP's novel method was a very smart discovery, of course, but does that define the beauty of his pieces?. I think artwork is always something that is specific, particular. If no specific configuration but only the generic method was repeated (exact copies of JP work would be pretty hard to do, I guess), then the claim is a commerce related not art related, I think.
Read this:
http://www.observer.com/20060417/20060417_Simon_Doonan_culture_simonsays.asp
Simon Doonan has been doing this type of installation for many more years than Jack Pierson. Over 20 years, in fact.
What a coincidence that Jack Cheim, the owner of the gallery who sells Jack Pierson's unoriginal "art" is the one bellyaching about it.
Everyone reading this should read Simon Doonan's excellently written and very funny column on this subject in the New York Observer. Here is the link:
http://observer.com/20060417/20060417_Simon_Doonan_pageone_simonsays.asp
Well if Mr. Pierson is such a good artist and has been doing found lettering pieces for over 15 years, shouldn't he be doing something else by now?
A general idea cannot and should not be owned by an individual or company - no one owns or should ever own the basic idea of using found lettering in assemblage pieces, in or out of the art world. If that was so it would then be fair to think that someone or a company could copyright the idea of making cars, writing with pen and paper or painting with brushes and canvass. What would of all the painters in the world if only one could own the idea of painting? It is not the basic idea that is the intelectual property of the artist, but that which was made by him/her. Or in other words, Mr. Doonan would only be in breach of copyright if he had directly copied one of Mr. Pierson's pieces, and since this was not the case, as well as Mr. Doonan having a proven track record of such work for a longer period than that of Mr. Pierson, this makes it a non-case as far as any posible legal action is concerned.
Mr. Doonan could do Barneys a favor and commission an extraordinary artist like Jack Pierson to do what he does best: create thought-provoking, eye-catching, original pieces. Give credit where credit is due and Barneys will look all the better for it - in the art world and in the yuppie's pockets.
You are crazy! I am an art director and even I had been doibng this type of work sice the 80's and it had been done in Europe as well. Jack did not invent the use of signs as pop art! Do a little research.
As much as I like his work, it is pretty derivative of MANY other photograhers and artists.