50 Alan Greenspan paintings?

Lisa Ober · 01-31-2006, 07:01 PM

Has anyone seen this story? In a nutshell, this young lady has garnered a tremendous amount of press as a result of painting 50 portraits of Alan Greenspan. As I understand it, later tonight one of them will be auctioned on E-bay and is expected to bring at least $6000.00.

Any thoughts on this? You can read one of the stories about the "series" below:

Greenspan paintings

Michele Rushworth · 01-31-2006, 07:25 PM

Fascinating approach!

Hope he doesn't sue her for breach of privacy, though. It has happened.

Alexandra Tyng · 01-31-2006, 10:54 PM

If she hasn't actually met Greenspan, then I assume she used photographic references taken by other people. If I were she I would be nervous about copyright infringement. I would also feel uncomfortable about being un-original. But I guess that doesn't bother her.

It certainly promises to be a lucrative venture. I can't tell whether she's a dedicated artist or whether she is just out to make a buck. Or maybe a little of both. The article could be slanted because it is in Forbes.

Lisa Ober · 01-31-2006, 11:45 PM

I wondered about the copyright issues as well. Pretty ingenious stunt though. She was all over cable news today. She has a web site which consists so far only of her Greenspan paintings and links to news articles.

Jean Kelly · 02-01-2006, 01:12 AM

When I saw this I just laughed and laughed. It is ingenious, but probably good for only one run. She mentioned that it was time to move on to another subject; I think Ted Kennedy would be great!

Jean

Lisa Ober · 02-01-2006, 02:09 AM

Yes, it seems there is only one dimension to the two dimensional paintings so far. Love the Kennedy idea. Perhaps Bill Gates would be a good strategic move.

Lisa Ober · 02-01-2006, 02:13 AM

At the time of this writing the bidding is up to $23,000. Someone is laughing all the way to the bank. To be fair, the auction winnings go to a charity. Now I am thinking this isn't such a bad idea if you can get the press. Check out the bidding here: Greenspan Auction on E-bay

Molly Sherrick Phifer · 02-02-2006, 09:19 AM

The bidding is up over $80,000 now, with 100% of the final sale price going to a charity called Autism Speaks. Free shipping, too!

Lisa, thanks so much for posting this! I love to see people doing this type of innovative thing!

I am thinking she may not have used photo references, but perhaps worked from sketches or may even have taken her own reference photos. I don't know how tough it is to get into those press conferences, but I know for sure it is do-able. I'm rooting for her!

Mark Youd · 02-02-2006, 11:08 AM

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Michele Rushworth · 02-02-2006, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Do you think Mr. Greenspan is flattered or flustered? I'd go for flattered, after all, any publicity is good publicity until theres a law suit involved.

He doesn't need the publicity, though, and he may very well be bothered by this. Either way the artist has taken a big risk. There's a well known case from a few years back where an artist took pictures of Tiger Woods at a golf tournament (no photographer's copyright issues, the artist took the pictures himself).

He then made paintings and sold a pile of prints of them, with Tiger Woods' image. Tiger Woods sued over the issue of using his image for profit without permission -- and the artist lost.