Ward Churchill: The Copyist?
(Apologies for the delay in new posts)
Most of you are probably already aware of the ongoing saga involving Ward Churchill, professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, and his 2001 essay "The Ghosts of 9-1-1." For an introduction or recap of that controversy see archived posts at Das Haus (scroll down for additional posts).
Unfortunately for Churchill, conservative bloggers have been conducting an investigation of their own in an attempt to besmirch his reputation. One such investigation has resulted in allegations of copyright infringement as a number of Churchill's artworks have revealed glaring similarities to those of earlier Native American artists. In one case, a serigraph by Churchill called "Winter Battle" appears to be an almost identical reversed image of a 1972 painting by the late artist Thomas E. Mails titled "The Mystic Warriors of the Plains."
Churchill defended his works by providing the following explanation:
"It is an original art work by me, after Thomas Mails. The fact that the purchaser was ignorant of the reality of what was perfectly publicly stated at the time the edition was printed is not my responsibility."
Another point of contention is that Churchill signed the work as his own (which it is) but failed to give credit to Mails by indicating something like "Winter Battle after Thomas E. Mails's painting 'The Mystic Warriors of the Plains." The evidence against Churchill in this case is overwhelming, it's just too bad that this guy's entire life is being dissected and reviewed over an essay that was written over three years ago. Might Churchill be a copyist? Sure, but it's certainly plausible that he did obtain permission to borrow parts of or entire images from other artists to translate them into either a new medium or create a variation of the original artist's work (although Churchill is certainly not among the following artists in terms of artistic talent or creativity, it is worthy to note that van Gogh, Rembrandt, Reubens, and Michelangelo were all proficient copiers). In any event, it's no small coincidence that Churchill's art is coming under such scrutiny now, well into the investigation being conducted by the Board of Regents at the university.
Most of you are probably already aware of the ongoing saga involving Ward Churchill, professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, and his 2001 essay "The Ghosts of 9-1-1." For an introduction or recap of that controversy see archived posts at Das Haus (scroll down for additional posts).
Unfortunately for Churchill, conservative bloggers have been conducting an investigation of their own in an attempt to besmirch his reputation. One such investigation has resulted in allegations of copyright infringement as a number of Churchill's artworks have revealed glaring similarities to those of earlier Native American artists. In one case, a serigraph by Churchill called "Winter Battle" appears to be an almost identical reversed image of a 1972 painting by the late artist Thomas E. Mails titled "The Mystic Warriors of the Plains."
Churchill defended his works by providing the following explanation:
"It is an original art work by me, after Thomas Mails. The fact that the purchaser was ignorant of the reality of what was perfectly publicly stated at the time the edition was printed is not my responsibility."
Another point of contention is that Churchill signed the work as his own (which it is) but failed to give credit to Mails by indicating something like "Winter Battle after Thomas E. Mails's painting 'The Mystic Warriors of the Plains." The evidence against Churchill in this case is overwhelming, it's just too bad that this guy's entire life is being dissected and reviewed over an essay that was written over three years ago. Might Churchill be a copyist? Sure, but it's certainly plausible that he did obtain permission to borrow parts of or entire images from other artists to translate them into either a new medium or create a variation of the original artist's work (although Churchill is certainly not among the following artists in terms of artistic talent or creativity, it is worthy to note that van Gogh, Rembrandt, Reubens, and Michelangelo were all proficient copiers). In any event, it's no small coincidence that Churchill's art is coming under such scrutiny now, well into the investigation being conducted by the Board of Regents at the university.
posted by Corey Wyckoff at 12:18 PM
1 Comments:
The strategy here is pretty clear: lefty prof says things that right-wingers don't like, and a dissection of lefty prof's life begins to turn up all kinds of unsavory but irrelevant details of which we would all have otherwise remained unaware, and lefty prof is ultimately "discredited" on the basis of facts that are unrelated to the lefty statements that landed him/her in hot water in the first place. It's an underhanded but (unfortunately) effective tactic.
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