By IPS Correspondents
LIMA, Jan 29 2002 (IPS)

A lawsuit brought by artists in Peru against an architectural magazine to demand payment for publishing photographs of paintings by Pablo Picasso has triggered a contentious debate about the limits between commerce and the journalistic dissemination of works of art.

The Lima-based Association for the Protection of Visual Artists (ASPAV) filed the complaint against the Arkinka journal in December and announced that it would charge the communications media in general for every photograph or image reproducing the works of its 82 members or the foreign painters whose rights the group claims to protect.

Arkinka has not included in its pages the image of any of the paintings by ASPAV members, but the association is demanding payment for the publication of photos of works by famous foreign artists, such as Spain’s Picasso and Salvador Dalí, the Russians March Chagall and Vassily Kandinsky, France’s Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse, among others.

The legal clash has a political edge as well because ASPAV is headed by Victor Delfín, a painter with close ties to President Alejandro Toledo, who he accompanied in the street protests that contributed to the demise of the Alberto Fujimori government in November 2000.

The electoral victory of Toledo, who took office last July, made Delfín the most politically influential artist in the country as he was named president of the governmental National Cultural Commission.

ASPAV was founded in 1997 by Yiva Villavicencio, an attorney who specialised in copyright law in a course held in 1996 in London, where she also established contacts at the Paris-based International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC).

CISAC, entrusted with overseeing international royalty payments, also controls the use of images belonging to its affiliates in such things as art books, textile designs and decorative reproductions.

It also charges a fine for the use of these images when the reproductions have not been authorised by the owners of the respective rights. The confederation also represents the rights of the heirs of artists who have died.

“The copyright has an expiration date of 70 years after the death of the artist. CISAC monitors – through its affiliates like ASPAV – whether the artworks of its members are being used for commercial purposes,” Villavicencio explained.

ASPAV claims that the media that utilise photos of works of art to illustrate news articles or broadcasts are also required to pay copyright royalties, a claim that was rejected by the National Institute for the Defence of the Competence and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) during the Fujimori administration (1990-2000).

However, the new authorities at INDECOPI, designated by Toledo, recognise ASPAV’s right to charge for reproductions of works included in journalistic publications or broadcasts.

Based on that authorisation, the association of artists demanded that Arkinka magazine pay for the photos included in its stories about exhibitions in museums in various cities around the world.

Architect Frederick Cooper, Arkinka editor, refused to pay 80 dollars for each of the 24 photos of works that, on average, the magazine has published each month since January 1997 in articles covering art expositions in Paris, London, Madrid and New York.

“Suddenly we received an avalanche of bills that we are not in a position to pay. If they force us to pay it, we will have to close down the magazine because Arkinka is not a for-profit venture, we publish it out of a sense of vocation,” said Cooper.

Delfín, meanwhile, commented that “Arkinka is a magazine for snooty architects,” and there is no reason why it should not pay for the images. “If the work of a painter or sculptor appears in the communications media, the artist has the right to charge a royalty,” he said.

But the case against Arkinka is not the only battle being waged by ASPAV. Poet Enrique Verastegui received a legal warning to pay for using a reproduction of a fragment of a painting by Alberto Aragón on the cover of a collection of poems he published.

The unauthorised use of a painter’s works in an encyclopaedia of art may also be the target of legal demands for royalty payments.

The Ponce publishing house discovered this when it received a legal citation for including a photo of a painting by Alberto Quintanilla in its compendium “Paintings and Painters of Peru”, without having paid the artist his due royalties.

Journalist Pablo Bonilla explained the controversy in his own way, stating that Delfín “has been successful since the 1970s with his sculptures made from scrap iron, but his paintings have been categorised as mediocre by art critics, and now Delfín is responding with contempt.”

The evolution of the case against Arkinka could mean that newspapers and magazines in Peru will be reluctant in the future to publish photographs of artworks by national or foreign artists, a possibility that worries many in the country’s artistic community.

“Those who reproduce works of art for sale or for advertising should be charged royalties, but it is absurd to interpret journalistic dissemination of art as commercial exploitation,” commented Mariana Vega, a columnist for the daily ‘Correo’.

Such reproductions “form part of the exercise of freedom of information of the press and of the public’s right to be informed,” she said.

Painter Gerardo Chávez also questions the approach taken by the president of the National Cultural Commission.

“I don’t understand how Delfín, who has been entrusted with designing official cultural policy, could promote this virtual ban on the mass media dissemination of artistic creations, which form part of the heritage of humanity,” he said.

Another painter, Fernando de Szyszlo, maintains that charging the press for its use of photographs of artworks jeopardises the chances for promoting the works of artists in general, “because it benefits us painters when the media take an interest in our art.”

Chávez and Szyszlo are two of Peru’s leading painters and both initially accepted Delfín’s invitation to join ASPAV but, like other noted visual artists, they quit the organisation when they learned of its intentions to charge royalties to the media for reporting on their artwork.

“We artists can be like that, fickle, but those who don’t agree with the policy can leave. Nobody is forcing them to be members of an association. Even if I am the last one, I will comply with my duty to help by tribe. If my tribe disbands, that isn’t my problem. ASPAV will continue to demand royalty payments,” Delfín replied.

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