Poor form Frieze! Very, very poor form.
Here's my personal views and perspective on this situation as it stands currently. As in Prince has ripped other peoples' art off instagram, adding a single line of text, printing the images, and selling each through Frieze Gallery, New York for many tens of thousands of dollars.
So I say this.
As if it isn't hard enough being an artist in the digital world.
Our first point of contact to the wide world is online. It's the place you get seen, you have to have a folio online, or you can't be found. This does of course mean you're left exposed. Anyone can screenshot your work anywhere, anytime, and enjoy your hard work for free. And as an artist, you basically have to accept it. Accept that it's praise. Appreciate that someone likes what you have created. Because the average person seems unaware they have stolen anything. As an artist, you have to deal with this by the appreciating that it's for their personal enjoyment; they simply liked something they saw. It's not for any commercial gain, but it's just a pity they do not see the commercial deprivation.
As an artist, how can we police this? The cost far outweighs the return of chasing these anonymous thieves.
But when we look at the analogue world, we should feel safer. There is contact; human to human to human to art. Accountability.
We shouldn't have to worry that the supposed "experts", acting as our agents to the buying world (and as agents, you have the potential to represent any artist, therefore you are accountable to every artist for your actions) are willing to turn a blind eye to flagrant art theft from clients by another client.
... Allegedly.
You're allegedly arseholes too
