The Art of Art Lawsuits Richard Prince’s “Graduation” (2008) (right) was widely cited throughout the Cariou v. Prince case, and is shown here side-by-side with Patrick Cariou’s original. (image via Fordham’s IPLJ) In the past few years, the work of artist James Turrell was featured simultaneously at the Guggenheim, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; a retrospective of Cindy Sherman’s work drew large crowds at the Museum of Modern Art; and Art Basel Miami Beach seemed to grow ever more popular. As we all have seen, artwork can generate big money, and where money goes, lawyers and litigation follow. Let’s start with lawsuits about the art itself. The meaning of the legal term “due diligence” is far more debated these days than the Abstract Expressionist theory of “push-pull.” That seems like an eminently solvable problem, but this is more than just an administrative issue. In other words, if the new work looks different enough, it’s OK. The first involved William J.
Message to My Freshman Students | Keith M. Parsons For the first time in many years I am teaching a freshman course, Introduction to Philosophy. The experience has been mostly good. I had been told that my freshman students would be apathetic, incurious, inattentive, unresponsive and frequently absent, and that they would exude an insufferable sense of entitlement. I am happy to say that this characterization was not true of most students. Still, some students are often absent, and others, even when present, are distracted or disengaged. Some have had to be cautioned that class is not their social hour and others reminded not to send text messages in class. Welcome to higher education! First, I am your professor, not your teacher. Your teachers were held responsible if you failed, and expected to show that they had tried hard to avoid that dreaded result. Secondly, universities are ancient and tend to do things the old-fashioned way. Lecture has come under attack recently. Hogwash. Take the issue of documentation.