Does Gordon v. Drape really mean what it says about explicit misleadingness?
internetcases » cases 2021-05-04
Testing Gordon v. Drape with the paintings of Tom Sachs, some of which reproduce famous product labels in their entirety (or nearly so). The introduction to the coffee table book I just bought says,
From Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers bars to images of American flags and Air Force One, Sachs takes familiar brands, symbols, and commodities as his subjects. He represents these iconic images in his deliberately imperfect and conspicuously handmade aesthetic, wanting us to see the uneven brushstrokes and roughly hewn surfaces that distinguish his “handmade paintings.” By drawing attention to how his objects are made, he deconstructs the formidable and complex systems that powerful logos and brands represent. In Tom’s words, “When I look at these paintings, to me they all speak about power. There is power in logos and there is power in good advertising.”
On Artsy, the description says:
Critiquing the speed and regularity with which a materialistic society replaces commodities, Sachs uses both a profusion of commercial icons in his work and builds his own functioning versions of consumer goods using re-purposed items, such as the glossy, black Prada Toilet (1997), a workable toilet constructed out of Prada’s up-market packaging, with the company’s logo prominently displayed on the sculpture. Sachs’s works are emphatically process-oriented, an expression of the artist’s DIY spirit, divulging even the flaws of his complex and labor-intensive projects.
So, are his works explicitly misleading? See below for some examples:
