Anish Kapoor Sues NRA for Copyright Infringement Over 'Cloud Gate' Sculpture
Capturing the work in an advertisement that “seeks to whip up fear and hate.”
Seminal British artist Anish Kapoor is suing the National Rifle Association for spotlighting his Chicago-installed Cloud Gate (2004) sculpture in a promotional video without the artist’s permission. This week, Kapoor issued a copyright infringement lawsuit to the U.S. District Court in Chicago aimed at the gun rights advocate. “These sadly are times in which it is urgent for us all, in whatever way we can, to stand up to the dark and aggressive forces in society that seek, out of fear and hatred, to lead us backward into a primitive, paranoid, and defensive worldview,” Kapoor expressed in a statement via Art News.
In June 2017, the NRA released the video entitled “The Clenched Fist of Truth” in which an NRA representative named Dana Loesch warns viewers of the “liberal agenda” and media dangers. “They use their media to assassinate real news,” said Loesch in the video. Kapoor responded in a public letter last March: “The NRA’s ‘advertisement’ seeks to whip up fear and hate … Hidden here is a need to believe in a threatening ‘Other’ different from ourselves… The NRA’s video gives voice to xenophobic anxiety, and a further call to ‘arm’ the population against a fictional enemy.”
After the NRA rejected Kapoor’s complaint to take down the Cloud Gate photo from the ad, the artist is bringing the case to trial and seeking “$150,000 USD for each instance of willful infringement” noted Reuters. Stay tuned for updates.
