I have several ideas of paintings in my head that I would like to have turned into actual, large-scale, oil paintings. I have no real artistic skill myself, nor do I have the skill to know how to make an oil painting work technically (types of oil, etc).
Question 1:
If I sketch out an artwork, including very specific requirements and descriptions of details, including the right to demand that certain elements be repainted or removed from the final work, can I be considered “the artist”? Is it akin to being the director of a movie, or merely the screenwriter (or perhaps even someone with just a “Story By:” credit)?
I feel this is different than, say, a king farming out a portrait of the queen to a resident artist. The ideas are only loosely based in reality (think “magic realism”) and, as such, I think that I should retain the creative rights to this.
How reasonable is this?
Question 2:
What would the art community think about such a painting? Would they consider me (the director/idea-maker) to be “the artist”, or would they consider the painter to be “the artist”? If I commissioned many paintings, either by one painter or by many painters, would it be acceptable in the art community to have a gallery show presented with me as the artist?
An idea can’t be copyrighted. Only the expression of an idea can be copyrighted. So if an artist were to execute a work based on your idea he would probably still own the copyright unless you had a prior agreement saying otherwise. If you’re engaging an artist to do work like this you’ll want to put it in writing up front that you will have sole ownership of all works that are the result of the collaboration. Without a contract you’d probably have to demonstrate that your contribution to the execution of the work was substantial. How substantial is “substantial”? Well, that’s for a court to decide.
As for the reception of the art community … it depends. Some artists make heavy use of trained craftsmen in creating their works. Take Jeff Koons, for example. Almost all of his art is executed by assistants who work for him, but he’s taken seriously as an artist because his creative vision is so strong.
How is this different than any other commisioned artwork? You can easily hire an artist to paint a picture for you.
The Mother-in-law is a professional watercolorist, and she frequently does commissioned works. The level of creative control that the commisioner has varies by the project. Obviously, if the person wanted more control than she was comfortable with, she’d turn down the commission. In your case, it would just be a matter of finding an artist who was willing to let you have total creative control of the project.
You wouldn’t be “the artist.” Maybe you’d be “the designer.” Sometimes, at quilt shows, you’ll see a quilt labeled something like “Designed by Mary Smith. Pieced and quilted by Jane Jones.” Or you could consider these works collaborations, with both your name and the painter’s name on it. In either case, you could reasonably put the stuff together into your own show.
I don’t think there are any circumstances where you would be conisdered the artist. Of course, you could have someone ghost paint for you with a contract that stipulated that you owned all copywrites and could even have the artist sign your name.