tezsnike's blog

How can a work of public art, located on public land and funded by taxpayer money,be the intellectual property of an individual artist? Actually, it’s not that uncommon.

Portland was a leader in first allowing artists to retain copyright on all public art, but other cities, from Seattle to Miami, have followed suit. In Portland, the decision evolved during a series of heated debates over the summer of 1984—sparked by a poster and a postcard. The 1978 “Expose Yourself to Art” poster featured then-future Mayor Bud Clark holding his trench coat open and appearing to expose himself to a piece of public art, the downtown statue Kvinneakt . The poster had sold some 250,000 copies by 1984.

There was one problem: The poster did not contain an attribution to the sculpture’s artist, Norman J. Taylor, who expressed concern that the city did not adequately ensure he was credited. The second catalyst was a postcard of the then-unfinished Portlandia that Kaskey wanted to distribute. The city attorney advised Kaskey’s lawyer that it was a violation of Kaskey’s original contract with the city of Portland, which retained the rights to Portlandia.