Winning painting a copy

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 259, 18 October 1988, Page 1

Winning painting a copy

A prize winning painting in the recent Ohakune Art Awards was a copy of a portrait painted several years ago and the original artist is not happy.

Harry Sangl wrote to the Bulletin upset at a story in the issue o f September 20, 1988. "I didn't realize what a shock I'd get (when opening that issue o f the Bulletin)," wrote Mr Sangl. "I saw on page two the photo of the "winner" of the recent Ohakune Art Awards, holding "MY" painting!" He said the picture, of Mrs Moerangi Ratahi, was a copy of plate 19

from his book "The Blue Privilege". The book is a study o f Maori women with moko, or face tattoos. The copy was a water colour painted by Ken Grimes of Wanganui who won the portraiture award with the painting. Mr Grimes told the Bulletin that it was indeed a copy of a plate from "The Blue Privilege". He said he had not tried to hide the fact Turn page 2

Painting a copy

From page 1 that it was a copy. "I asked the organisers if it was okay to enter a copy, because there have been a lot of copies in the competition in the past," said Mr Grimes. "They said it was okay." He said he had checked the book thoroughly to make sure he wasn't breaching copyright and that he could find no indication that the works were protected by copyright. Asked if he thought it was fair to win an art competition with a work that wasn't origi-

nal Mr Grimes said yes, he thought it was. Mr Sangl suggested to the Bulletin that Ken Grimes was "most likely also in breach of the competition rules", because art competitions usually contain a clause disallowing entries that are not the artist's own work. An organiser of the competition, Mrs Ellen Gould, told the Bulletin that there was nothing in the competition rules to exclude copies. She said the Ohakune Art Awards were for am-

ateur artists and that the organisers did not have the resources to scrutinize works to exclude copies. "We don't have the art knowledge to pick out copies, nor the time to do that," she said. Ken Grimes said not all his work was copied. He said he usually paints from life and that he would be entering next year's awards with an original painting. "Harry Sangl is a world renowned artist and I'm really taken with his work," said Mr Grimes. "That's why I copied it."