Privacy issues and dispaying works of art

[Marvin Mattelson]

Mary, I would say it's better to err on the side of caution and get a model release signed. Then you don't have to worry about interpreting the letter of the law. ;-)

[Linda Nelson]

I have recently had to defend my copyrights on a painting. In the process, I talked with the lawyer (briefly) regarding usage rights vs. privacy rights. Although we don't we plan to talk specifically about until January, from understand, I believe we as artists have a lot more elbow room about displaying our work publicly than we assume. As long as the person is not publicly identified, or displayed in a disparaging light, we are within our bounds to show our artwork regardless or model release or client permission.
I'll keep you posted as I learn more. For now, as I have said to the lawyer, I plan to err on the side of the respect for privacy of my clients. But as one who truly believes that portraiture is a facet of, if not the ultimate, fine art (I hold the Mona Lisa as defense on that one) it is good for us to know our rights regarding our works as we promote ourselves as artists.