Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Outrageous!

A Toronto art dealer says he's "totally prepared" to give up the trademark rights his company and his wife hold for the names "Painters Eleven" and "Painters 11" following a week of what he termed "mass hysteria.".

For those who aren't much aware of Canadian Art, Painters Eleven is the name associated with a group of Toronto area abstract painters during the 1950s. They were Jack Bush, Oscar Cahén, Hortense Gordon, Tom Hodgson, Alexandra Luke, Jock Macdonald, Ray Mead, Kazuo Nakamura, William Ronald, Harold Town and Walter Yarwood. They're all gone now, but to me they were painting heros.


Last year, he (John Shearer) and his wife Lynda were granted trademark rights by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for the names "Painters Eleven" and "Painters 11"

Hey wait a minute...how can an individual own the rights to a piece of our cultural history?

I don't know what the Canadian Intellectual Property Office thinks they're doing giving away a piece of our cultural history, and I think the individuals who went after the rights had a hell of a lot of nerve. It looks like now the couple have decided to give the rights back, under pressure of what Mr. Shearer apparently termed "mass hysteria".

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This ugly piece of business reminds me of something painter Ron Bloore used to say to us back in my university days. Bloore had organized an exhibition called Five Painters from Regina in 1961. After it was picked up by the National Gallery, they became generally known as The Regina Five. Bloore would say, "Canadians paint by numbers", referring to the Group of Seven, The Regina Five and the Painters 11.

3 comments:

zydeco fish said...

Well, there's still room for Painters 12 and Painters 13, but those might be trademarked by George Clooney.

Candy Minx said...

Remember when Prince changed his name to a sign...he's starting to look pretty savvy now, right? Only another artist could understand what Prince was up to at the time...

Anything to outwit the knobs of the universe!

I could hardly stop laughing when I read this this morning.

Gardenia said...

Play on words there - painting by numbers....

My first reaction is to think - "the presumption of the people taking the name" - but then at the end it looks like the public embarrasment is probably going to make its own statement....