Wednesday 13 May 2009

Arabella Dorman

Graphic for Frontlines Images from Iraq at Frost & Reed 12th - 30th May 2009A month ago I previewed Arabella Dorman's forthcoming exhibition at Frost & Reed in London: Frontlines - Images from Iraq (CLICK). It opened yesterday and BBC News has posted an excellent slide show by Stuart Hughes and Paul Kerley (title link). We've all seen those ghastly TV art programmes in which some potty prof. pontificates about his prejudices while intrusive music thumps our ears and the camera jumps all over the place because the producer doesn't want to bore his audience with static art. Well, Hughes and Kerley show TV how it should be done. After a few photos of artist Arabella Dorman with the troops, the show glides from one key exhibit to the next while Arabella provides the voiceover, unpretentiously explaining her aims in a pleasant, articulate voice. Highly recommended. All producers of art programmes on TV should be forced to watch it. Potty profs too. And artists!

8 Comments:

At 29/5/09, Blogger Unknown said...

Excellent portraiture. It would be better if some of it didn't look as if it been copied directly from someone else's photos. Tsk, tsk

 
At 29/5/09, Blogger Unknown said...

The trouble with action paintings is that they look like photos, whether they're copied from photos or not. If they're good enough, that is. And Arabella's are.

I'm not averse to painters using cameras. Prior to the invention of the camera, artists were clueless how horses galloped. They seemed to think horses hopped about like frogs.

And one of my favourite British painters used an early camera to fix his scenes: John Atkinson Grimshaw.

 
At 17/6/09, Blogger bellart said...

What if they were copied from someone else's photographs?

 
At 17/6/09, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi, Bellart

I'm not saying they were copied from other people's photos, but it would be legitimate to do so. Rolf Harris recently unveiled his painting of the top Wimbledon tennis champions of all time, and he remarked on TV that he was very pleased with the photo of Venus Williams he had been sent to copy. (I meant to blog that, but haven't got round to it.)

I can't recall a single case of a photographer suing an artist over copyright infringement for using his photo as the basis for a painting.

 
At 22/5/12, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It looks like she may be using the copyrighted photographs taken by Michael Yon as her "inspiration" according to this post: http://adistantsoil.com/2012/05/22/war-artist-arabella-dorman-sure-likes-the-work-of-war-journalist-michael-yon-too-much/

 
At 23/5/12, Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks for the link. I've cut it down to size using a TINY URL, in case Blogger messes it up.

http://tinyurl.com/bmnufa7

You're not the first to comment on Arabella's use of photos. I've been defending her until now, because I was impressed by her art and by Paul Kerley's slide show, but this proven use of Michael Yon's photos without permission and without a credit is naughty.

I recently came across the blog of one of our top photographers and he notes that a graffiti artist sought his permission to use one of his photos as a basis for street art! If a graffiti artist can ask permission, I don't see why Arabella can't. Still, it's up to Michael Yon to complain.

 
At 23/5/12, Blogger zegron said...

Mr. Yon did complain: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/posts/386251364754494

It does look like according to his comments that MS. Dorman has admitted to it. hopefully she will compensate him for violating his copyrights. https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/posts/386251364754494?comment_id=4333238&offset=0&total_comments=67

 
At 23/5/12, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi, Zegron

Thanks for the update. I tested both links and they work. It looks as though Mr Yon will be taking action. Ms Dorman got a huge amount of undeserved publicity for her exhibition. The BBC loved it. So did I until today's updates.

 

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