The Tamesis
Year after year, new works of art are stripped of copyright protection and enter the public domain, allowing them to be used freely without the need for explicit permission from the estates that govern these works. This year, works by Salvador Dali, José Clemente Orozco and other famous artists have officially entered the public domain.
However, there are some important exceptions to how these artworks can be used. In theory, under U.S. copyright law, copyright expires after 95 years unless renewed, and any artwork created in 1930 would now be freed from its protection.
But as Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain points out every year on Public Domain Day, copyright is a notoriously finicky thing in this country, and that has to do with when the artwork was made. and when it is released to the public and Whether the estate or directing entity has updated the legal rights to a specific work. (This year’s Duke list also applies to the artworks themselves, rather than to specific high-quality images of them, the rights for which are typically managed by organizations that work with the artist’s estate.)
Still, all these caveats have not prevented some important works in multiple fields from entering the public domain. William Faulkner’s seminal 1930 novel when i’m dying Joined the public domain this year, as did Sigmund Freud’s 1929 philosophical pamphlet Civilization and its discontents and the 1930 Marx Brothers classic animal crackers. So did a series of cartoon characters this year, including Betty Boop and Rover (the Disney dog Rover was later renamed Pluto).
Here are six works of art that entered the public domain this year, according to Duke University’s list.
Piet Mondrian, Composition of red, blue and yellow1930
Photo credit: Angela Weiss/AFP, Getty Images
This piece by Piet Mondrian, which left a lasting mark on modern art, is divided into square sections of uninterrupted color separated by thick black lines. The Dutch painter aspired to achieve a form of “pure plastic art” that would allow the viewer to reach a state of transcendence. The work is owned by the Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland; a very similar second version of the painting sold for $51 million at Sotheby’s in 2022, pictured above.
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, golden age award1930
Image source: FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images
An important work of Surrealism, the film is considered a landmark not only because it was one of the earliest talkies, but also because its erotic imagery caused controversy at the time. Like the early collaborations between Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, Andalu one leg (1929), also in the public domain, golden age award The lack of a coherent narrative is all the more remarkable for the captivating images it offers. One famous scene shows a woman fellating on the statue’s toes.
Jose Clemente Orozco, Prometheus1930
Image Credit: Image © Pomona College
At the time of his painting, José Clemente Orozco had become one of Mexico’s most important muralists. Prometheushis first mural for a venue in the United States. The painting, located in a dining hall at Pomona College in Claremont, California, depicts the ancient Greek god Prometheus, who provided fire to mankind against the wishes of Zeus. Orozco painted the nude without genitals out of fear of offending some viewers.
Sophie Tauber-Arp, work1930
Photo credit: Friso Gentsch/Photo Alliance via Getty Images
Until a few years ago, when a touring retrospective dramatically reshaped public perception of her art, Sophie Tober-Arp was a little-known modernist. Today, the Swiss artist is beloved for the way he translates his abstract experiments into a variety of media, from painting to textiles to clothing. workA work in the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art illustrates her willingness to transcend convention, using oil paints along with metallic flakes to give the work a shimmering surface.
Photography: Edward Steichen
Image source: Conde Nast via Getty Images
Edward Steichen’s photographs blazed a new trail for many fashion photographers who followed him. Fashion. He became the magazine’s chief photographer vanity fair In 1923 and in the years that followed, he defined a new paradigm by employing artificial lighting and artificial art direction that made these shots look nothing like life itself. some photos taken Fashion The 1930 work is now in the public domain.
Paul Klee, Freund Society (Animal Friendship), 1930
Image source: Getty Images
Many of Paul Klee’s paintings contain mystical symbols that hint at a world beyond our own. The painting, collected by the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, depicts a duck-billed creature and a bison-like animal interacting against a bush background.
