VARA in action
The news release from artist David Ascalon reads:
"When artist David Ascalon's towering Holocaust memorial, just blocks from the Pennsylvania state capitol, was dedicated in 1994, he could not have imagined that a dozen years later, his name would be stripped away from the sculpture's base. Nor could Ascalon have envisioned that his most cherished creation - one which he designed to honor the millions who perished at the hands of the Nazis - would have been mutilated through drastic modification at the whim of a bunch of Harrisburg bureaucrats. But that is precisely what happened.Here are some before and after pictures, including ones that show the artist's signature completely ground away. A copy of the complaint is here.
Ascalon, however, was unwilling to permit this violation of his moral rights to go unchecked. Through his attorney, Jason B. Schaeffer of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, he has filed suit under Congress' Visual Artists' Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) - a law enacted to protect against such destruction - in Federal District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Through this action, Ascalon seeks to compel restoration of this important public artwork to its original design."
I don't know who the artist was, or even the name of the piece was, but does anyone remember that huge piece of shiny, fluttery, metal public art that used to be above the Bethesda Metro stop for years? The thing was massive; then, all of a sudden it was gone!
I wonder if that artist, whoever she or he may be, even knows that his work is no longer there.
The perils of public art... I guess.
2 comments:
Remember Richard Serra's Tilted Arc?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilted_Arc
John
Once again a visual artist's work has been disrespected by a local government body. These avoidable incidents are bound to be repeated unless the respectability of artists and their work becomes a part of everyday conversation in households across the U.S. A similar case invoking the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 or VARA is winding its way through the court. Chapman Kelley vs. Chicago Park District will have been in the Seventh Circuit Court’s lap for a year on September 10. That day will mark the first anniversary since oral argument (promising to Kelley, we are told) was heard in Chicago about the destruction of his public artwork *Chicago Wildflower Works* (1984-2004). A landmark appellate decision is imminent. Another important VARA case still in progress on the east coast is the installation artist Christoph Buchel case involving the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The integrity of Buchel’s *Training Ground for Democracy* is the focus of that dispute. David Ascalon is to be commended for standing up for his moral and personality rights as set forth in VARA. The artistic community will be better off as a result of his bold action. John Viramontes - Council for Artists Rights
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