thomasmer
Junior Member
Posts • 1,107
Likes • 565
July 2014
|
Graffiti Artists Sue 5Pointz Developer for...., by thomasmer on Jun 16, 2015 17:29:59 GMT 1, silly fools
silly fools
|
|
dreadnatty
Junior Member
Posts • 5,431
Likes • 6,992
February 2013
|
Graffiti Artists Sue 5Pointz Developer for...., by dreadnatty on Jun 16, 2015 18:28:05 GMT 1, Love 5Pointz and wish it were still there. That said, this is ridiculous. It was Wolkoff who let the artists paint HIS building. He owned/owns it and can do whatever he likes with it. Its gone. Move on.
Love 5Pointz and wish it were still there. That said, this is ridiculous. It was Wolkoff who let the artists paint HIS building. He owned/owns it and can do whatever he likes with it. Its gone. Move on.
|
|
WOOF
Junior Member
Posts • 4,462
Likes • 4,758
March 2014
|
Graffiti Artists Sue 5Pointz Developer for...., by WOOF on Jun 16, 2015 18:43:31 GMT 1, Bwahahaha
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
but seriously... hahahhahahahahahaahaha
Is this real life?
Bwahahaha
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
but seriously... hahahhahahahahahaahaha
Is this real life?
|
|
|
met
Junior Member
Posts • 2,782
Likes • 6,706
June 2009
|
Graffiti Artists Sue 5Pointz Developer for...., by met on Jul 9, 2015 16:58:28 GMT 1,
The sense of entitlement demonstrated here is remarkable.
Why are the artists claiming to sue? Because work they painted on somebody else's property was buffed.
Given that, in the case of 5Pointz, the horse has already bolted, a frivolous legal action can only be explained as an opportunist and late money-grab attempt.
One of the lawyer's comments says it all: "This is a case about damages, ..."
In my view, the nine artists in question (copied and pasted below) merit public ridicule and set an example not to follow:
1. Maria Castillo (TOOFLY) 2. James Cochran (Jimmy C) 3. Luis Gomez (Ishmael)
4. Bienbenido Guerra (FCEE) 5. Richard Miller (Patch Whiskey) 6. Kai Niederhausen (Semor)
7. Carlo Nieva 8. Rodney Rodriguez (PANIC) 9. Kenji Takabayashi
Maybe these nine should also consider suing any writer or artist (especially if his or her family is well-off) who goes over their work.
The sense of entitlement demonstrated here is remarkable. Why are the artists claiming to sue? Because work they painted on somebody else's property was buffed. Given that, in the case of 5Pointz, the horse has already bolted, a frivolous legal action can only be explained as an opportunist and late money-grab attempt. One of the lawyer's comments says it all: "This is a case about damages, ..."In my view, the nine artists in question (copied and pasted below) merit public ridicule and set an example not to follow: 1. Maria Castillo (TOOFLY) 2. James Cochran (Jimmy C) 3. Luis Gomez (Ishmael) 4. Bienbenido Guerra (FCEE) 5. Richard Miller (Patch Whiskey) 6. Kai Niederhausen (Semor) 7. Carlo Nieva 8. Rodney Rodriguez (PANIC) 9. Kenji Takabayashi Maybe these nine should also consider suing any writer or artist (especially if his or her family is well-off) who goes over their work.
|
|
dreadnatty
Junior Member
Posts • 5,431
Likes • 6,992
February 2013
|
Graffiti Artists Sue 5Pointz Developer for...., by dreadnatty on Feb 12, 2018 23:19:04 GMT 1, 5 Pointz graffiti artists awarded $6.7M by federal judge
ny.curbed.com/2018/2/12/17005324/5-pointz-lawsuit-graffiti-artist-settlement
Im with met on this one. I dont understand the suit and especially the verdict. I think this might have bad implications going forward for artists. Already seeing many building owners in my neighborhood(Williamsburg/Greenpoint) opting for advertising $$$$(Colossal/Sky High seem to lock up every building)
5 Pointz graffiti artists awarded $6.7M by federal judge ny.curbed.com/2018/2/12/17005324/5-pointz-lawsuit-graffiti-artist-settlementIm with met on this one. I dont understand the suit and especially the verdict. I think this might have bad implications going forward for artists. Already seeing many building owners in my neighborhood(Williamsburg/Greenpoint) opting for advertising $$$$(Colossal/Sky High seem to lock up every building)
|
|
met
Junior Member
Posts • 2,782
Likes • 6,706
June 2009
|
Graffiti Artists Sue 5Pointz Developer for...., by met on Feb 15, 2018 16:48:57 GMT 1, 5 Pointz graffiti artists awarded $6.7M by federal judge ny.curbed.com/2018/2/12/17005324/5-pointz-lawsuit-graffiti-artist-settlementIm with met on this one. I dont understand the suit and especially the verdict. I think this might have bad implications going forward for artists. Already seeing many building owners in my neighborhood(Williamsburg/Greenpoint) opting for advertising $$$$(Colossal/Sky High seem to lock up every building) I've only read a few press articles — as opposed to the verdict itself, which is 50 pages long according to one report, and 100 pages long according to another.
The 13 February article by Jake Offenhartz in The Village Voice is quite good (copy-pasted below, but without the original hyperlinks). It's the only one I've seen discussing the possible consequences of the judgement, in terms of the likelihood of US property owners allowing artists to paint on their buildings going forward. My fear is that the manner in which the judgement is perceived will be detrimental to future, sanctioned, wall-space availability for graffiti writers and street artists.
A key point I wasn't previously aware of (not mentioned in the 2015 Hyperallergic article at the start of this thread) is that, in 2013, the artists had filed an injunction with the court under the Visual Artists Rights Act. "But before the court could issue an opinion, [5Pointz owner Jerry] Wolkoff had the walls covered in white paint under the cover of night." It seems this "insolence" was a crucial aggravating factor which undermined Wolkoff's case.
www.villagevoice.com/2018/02/13/5pointz-verdict-a-mixed-blessing-for-graffiti-artists/
5Pointz Verdict a Mixed Blessing for Graffiti Artists
A judge’s award of $6.75 million to whitewashed muralists is great for schadenfreude but could complicate future relations with property owners
by JAKE OFFENHARTZ FEBRUARY 13, 2018
Five years after developer Jerry Wolkoff painted over the iconic 5Pointz graffiti murals en route to building a pair of bland, beige luxury high-rises, a federal judge ruled Monday in favor of a lawsuit brought by 21 street artists against Wolkoff. In a blistering decision, Judge Frederic Block called the literal whitewashing of 5Pointz “an act of pure pique and revenge,” and ordered Wolkoff to pay the creators a whopping $6,750,000 in damages.
“The graffiti artists are elated by the court’s decision in this case,” Eric Baum, attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Voice following the decision. “All of the artists at 5Pointz, led by their curator Jonathan Cohen, are professional artists who have spent their lives mastering the techniques necessary to create this art. Their art should be cherished, not destroyed.”
The decision follows a protracted, high-profile legal battle, and marks the first-ever instance of a court determining whether exterior aerosol art is worthy of legal protection. It comes four years after the demolition of the 5Pointz complex, which street artists had used as a sort of open-air gallery, with Wolkoff’s permission, beginning in the early Nineties. When word got out that Wolkoff was planning to replace the warehouse with high-rise condos, the artists mounted a public campaign to save the building, and Cohen, the site’s de facto leader, petitioned the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission for landmark status.
But despite the public pressure, and even a call from Banksy to “save 5Pointz,” the preservation effort was unsuccessful. As a last-ditch effort, the artists filed a preliminary injunction with the court under the Visual Artists Rights Act — a seldom-used federal statute intended to safeguard public art of “recognized stature.” But before the court could issue an opinion, Wolkoff had the walls covered in white paint under the cover of night. That decision, the artists argued, was a direct violation of their VARA rights.
Wolkoff’s legal team, meanwhile, contended that artists should have known that the industrial space would eventually evolve — in this case, to a set of glass and stone towers branded with a deeply unfortunate graffiti logo. The ephemeral nature of street art, they argued, meant that 5Pointz was beyond the scope of VARA. (Wolkoff’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.)
The developer’s argument did little to persuade a jury, which advised Judge Block on his decision back in November (the result of an odd legal arrangement, in which both parties agreed mid-trial that the jury’s decision should be taken as a recommendation). In addition to finding that aerosol art does qualify for protection under VARA, both the judge and jury considered Wolkoff’s method of destruction so irresponsible as to warrant the maximum penalties.
“If not for Wolkoff’s insolence, these damages would not have been assessed,” Block wrote in his decision. “If he did not destroy 5Pointz until he received his permits and demolished it 10 months later, the Court would not have found that he had acted willfully.” In other words, Wolkoff was within his rights to destroy the artwork, but doing so in the midst of a court injunction, and seemingly out of spite, weighed heavily against his case.
“The shame of it all is that since 5Pointz was a prominent tourist attraction, the public would undoubtedly have thronged to say its goodbyes during those 10 months and gaze at the formidable works of aerosol art for the last time,” the judge added. “It would have been a wonderful tribute for the artists that they richly deserved.”
Beyond the steep fine, Monday’s decision could have far-reaching consequences for local graffiti artists working on private property. Because so few cases involving VARA have made it to court, the statute’s definition of what constitutes work of “recognized stature” is hardly clear. In Baum’s view, the ruling is a “precedent-setting case,” offering “a clear indication that aerosol art is in the same category of any other fine art, equally worthy of the protections of the federal law.”
But other legal experts say that graffiti’s status as true art was never in question, and instead wonder if the expansive ruling could complicate the relationship between artists and building owners, who may now be more wary of inviting muralists to contribute work on their properties. There’s also the issue of VARA waivers — the unusual, potentially problematic clause in the 1990 legislation allowing artists to sign away their rights to protection. “If I’m a landlord who reads this, the first thing I’m now doing is getting artists to waive VARA, which in the end run could hurt artists and the power of VARA,” warned Philippa Loengard, deputy director at the Center for Law, Media and the Arts at Columbia Law School.
“Developers who commission art have their eyes wide open now,” echoed Barry Werbin, a copyright expert and attorney with Herrick, Feinstein LLP. “It’s definitely a hard lesson for them.” On the other hand, Werbin predicted that aerosol artists might be able to use the precedent as a sort of bargaining chip, extracting cash or other concessions from building owners in exchange for signing away their VARA rights.
Those who followed the case say it’s hard to immediately gauge its effect, if any, on how graffiti artists will assert rights over their work in the future. For now, the ruling offers real, unexpectedly high compensation to artists whose prized pieces were erased overnight, and a bit of schadenfreude for the rest us who never got to say goodbye. As Jonathan Cohen, known at 5Pointz as Meres One, testified during the trial, “Respect in our game is everything, and if you don’t have respect then you don’t get respect.”
5 Pointz graffiti artists awarded $6.7M by federal judge ny.curbed.com/2018/2/12/17005324/5-pointz-lawsuit-graffiti-artist-settlementIm with met on this one. I dont understand the suit and especially the verdict. I think this might have bad implications going forward for artists. Already seeing many building owners in my neighborhood(Williamsburg/Greenpoint) opting for advertising $$$$(Colossal/Sky High seem to lock up every building) I've only read a few press articles — as opposed to the verdict itself, which is 50 pages long according to one report, and 100 pages long according to another. The 13 February article by Jake Offenhartz in The Village Voice is quite good (copy-pasted below, but without the original hyperlinks). It's the only one I've seen discussing the possible consequences of the judgement, in terms of the likelihood of US property owners allowing artists to paint on their buildings going forward. My fear is that the manner in which the judgement is perceived will be detrimental to future, sanctioned, wall-space availability for graffiti writers and street artists. A key point I wasn't previously aware of (not mentioned in the 2015 Hyperallergic article at the start of this thread) is that, in 2013, the artists had filed an injunction with the court under the Visual Artists Rights Act. "But before the court could issue an opinion, [5Pointz owner Jerry] Wolkoff had the walls covered in white paint under the cover of night." It seems this "insolence" was a crucial aggravating factor which undermined Wolkoff's case. www.villagevoice.com/2018/02/13/5pointz-verdict-a-mixed-blessing-for-graffiti-artists/5Pointz Verdict a Mixed Blessing for Graffiti Artists
A judge’s award of $6.75 million to whitewashed muralists is great for schadenfreude but could complicate future relations with property owners
by JAKE OFFENHARTZ FEBRUARY 13, 2018
Five years after developer Jerry Wolkoff painted over the iconic 5Pointz graffiti murals en route to building a pair of bland, beige luxury high-rises, a federal judge ruled Monday in favor of a lawsuit brought by 21 street artists against Wolkoff. In a blistering decision, Judge Frederic Block called the literal whitewashing of 5Pointz “an act of pure pique and revenge,” and ordered Wolkoff to pay the creators a whopping $6,750,000 in damages.
“The graffiti artists are elated by the court’s decision in this case,” Eric Baum, attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Voice following the decision. “All of the artists at 5Pointz, led by their curator Jonathan Cohen, are professional artists who have spent their lives mastering the techniques necessary to create this art. Their art should be cherished, not destroyed.”
The decision follows a protracted, high-profile legal battle, and marks the first-ever instance of a court determining whether exterior aerosol art is worthy of legal protection. It comes four years after the demolition of the 5Pointz complex, which street artists had used as a sort of open-air gallery, with Wolkoff’s permission, beginning in the early Nineties. When word got out that Wolkoff was planning to replace the warehouse with high-rise condos, the artists mounted a public campaign to save the building, and Cohen, the site’s de facto leader, petitioned the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission for landmark status.
But despite the public pressure, and even a call from Banksy to “save 5Pointz,” the preservation effort was unsuccessful. As a last-ditch effort, the artists filed a preliminary injunction with the court under the Visual Artists Rights Act — a seldom-used federal statute intended to safeguard public art of “recognized stature.” But before the court could issue an opinion, Wolkoff had the walls covered in white paint under the cover of night. That decision, the artists argued, was a direct violation of their VARA rights.
Wolkoff’s legal team, meanwhile, contended that artists should have known that the industrial space would eventually evolve — in this case, to a set of glass and stone towers branded with a deeply unfortunate graffiti logo. The ephemeral nature of street art, they argued, meant that 5Pointz was beyond the scope of VARA. (Wolkoff’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.)
The developer’s argument did little to persuade a jury, which advised Judge Block on his decision back in November (the result of an odd legal arrangement, in which both parties agreed mid-trial that the jury’s decision should be taken as a recommendation). In addition to finding that aerosol art does qualify for protection under VARA, both the judge and jury considered Wolkoff’s method of destruction so irresponsible as to warrant the maximum penalties.
“If not for Wolkoff’s insolence, these damages would not have been assessed,” Block wrote in his decision. “If he did not destroy 5Pointz until he received his permits and demolished it 10 months later, the Court would not have found that he had acted willfully.” In other words, Wolkoff was within his rights to destroy the artwork, but doing so in the midst of a court injunction, and seemingly out of spite, weighed heavily against his case.
“The shame of it all is that since 5Pointz was a prominent tourist attraction, the public would undoubtedly have thronged to say its goodbyes during those 10 months and gaze at the formidable works of aerosol art for the last time,” the judge added. “It would have been a wonderful tribute for the artists that they richly deserved.”
Beyond the steep fine, Monday’s decision could have far-reaching consequences for local graffiti artists working on private property. Because so few cases involving VARA have made it to court, the statute’s definition of what constitutes work of “recognized stature” is hardly clear. In Baum’s view, the ruling is a “precedent-setting case,” offering “a clear indication that aerosol art is in the same category of any other fine art, equally worthy of the protections of the federal law.”
But other legal experts say that graffiti’s status as true art was never in question, and instead wonder if the expansive ruling could complicate the relationship between artists and building owners, who may now be more wary of inviting muralists to contribute work on their properties. There’s also the issue of VARA waivers — the unusual, potentially problematic clause in the 1990 legislation allowing artists to sign away their rights to protection. “If I’m a landlord who reads this, the first thing I’m now doing is getting artists to waive VARA, which in the end run could hurt artists and the power of VARA,” warned Philippa Loengard, deputy director at the Center for Law, Media and the Arts at Columbia Law School.
“Developers who commission art have their eyes wide open now,” echoed Barry Werbin, a copyright expert and attorney with Herrick, Feinstein LLP. “It’s definitely a hard lesson for them.” On the other hand, Werbin predicted that aerosol artists might be able to use the precedent as a sort of bargaining chip, extracting cash or other concessions from building owners in exchange for signing away their VARA rights.
Those who followed the case say it’s hard to immediately gauge its effect, if any, on how graffiti artists will assert rights over their work in the future. For now, the ruling offers real, unexpectedly high compensation to artists whose prized pieces were erased overnight, and a bit of schadenfreude for the rest us who never got to say goodbye. As Jonathan Cohen, known at 5Pointz as Meres One, testified during the trial, “Respect in our game is everything, and if you don’t have respect then you don’t get respect.”
|
|
dreadnatty
Junior Member
Posts • 5,431
Likes • 6,992
February 2013
|
Graffiti Artists Sue 5Pointz Developer for...., by dreadnatty on Feb 15, 2018 18:03:42 GMT 1, Thanks for the article met . I think what ‘pressured’ Wolkoff was the move by Meres One/other artists/activists to try and get the building landmarked - which would’ve been devastating to the owner financially. I’m assuming he made the snap decision to whitewash knowing that he might lose some money short term but longer term it would be worth it financially. It’s a complete mess for both sides sadly. He was good to the artists for a long time and in the end it cost him $6.5m(which I’m sure he’s fine with considering the size of the building they put up). Even before the judgement, the amount of space for artists to paint is in decline. Advertisers have been taking over everything in Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Bushwick and many other neighborhoods that were ‘artist-friendly’. The times they are a changin’.
Thanks for the article met . I think what ‘pressured’ Wolkoff was the move by Meres One/other artists/activists to try and get the building landmarked - which would’ve been devastating to the owner financially. I’m assuming he made the snap decision to whitewash knowing that he might lose some money short term but longer term it would be worth it financially. It’s a complete mess for both sides sadly. He was good to the artists for a long time and in the end it cost him $6.5m(which I’m sure he’s fine with considering the size of the building they put up). Even before the judgement, the amount of space for artists to paint is in decline. Advertisers have been taking over everything in Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Bushwick and many other neighborhoods that were ‘artist-friendly’. The times they are a changin’.
|
|
moron
Junior Member
Posts • 2,711
Likes • 1,051
September 2017
|
Graffiti Artists Sue 5Pointz Developer for...., by moron on Feb 15, 2018 19:12:01 GMT 1, So the artists who painted on the building. Was it by invitation only or could anyone turn up with spray cans?
Did the artists paint over each others or other peoples graffiti?
To some people it's art and to others it's an eyesore on the landscape.
I guess being America where lawyers love litigation leading to big payouts, plus the owner tried to trademark the 5pointz name ws probably what gave these artists any sort of rights in court.
Now with the big payout these artists can buy their own run down building and spray on it as much as they like. or invest their money in property etc etc
So the artists who painted on the building. Was it by invitation only or could anyone turn up with spray cans?
Did the artists paint over each others or other peoples graffiti?
To some people it's art and to others it's an eyesore on the landscape.
I guess being America where lawyers love litigation leading to big payouts, plus the owner tried to trademark the 5pointz name ws probably what gave these artists any sort of rights in court.
Now with the big payout these artists can buy their own run down building and spray on it as much as they like. or invest their money in property etc etc
|
|