Roger in troubled Waters

Roger Waters' album cover (left) and Emilio Isgrò "Cancellatura" (right)

It has been a turbulent summer for Roger Waters’ new album “Is this the life we really want?”, released around two months ago. 

In Italy, the sale of the album cover, the booklet and the CD sticker was prohibited by the Milan Court of first instance on 25 July last (the decision is not available on public databases yet, as soon as this Kat finds it, she will let you know).

The reason? The cover art was found to amount to an infringement of copyright in a work of art called “Cancellatura” (1964), by Italian artist Emilio Isgrò.

Mr Isgrò is well known in his native Italy as well as around the globe for his erasure technique. The message he conveys through his artworks is literally hidden between the lines: he manually erases parts of the text with black ink, leaving only a few visible words. The resulting message is cryptic and evocative at the same time. These works of art have been exposed in museums and have been widely discussed by experts for half a century. 

The cover of Mr Waters' new album also uses the erasure technique, blacking out text with irregular lines and leaving out only the words forming the title of the album itself.

In the present case, the Milan Court of First Instance had to assess, first, whether Isgrò's work could be protected and, secondly, whether said work had been unlawfully reproduced in the album cover at stake. As regards the first point, the court had no problem in establishing the protectability of the artist and of his works of art, which have been exposed and studied throughout the years and whose artistic value is persistent and undiminished.

As regards the second point, the court introduced the discussion by saying that it is the expression what is protected, not the idea behind it. In this case, it is clear in the blink of an eye that the expressiveness in two works of art is the same. The use of black irregular lines, traced in an irregular manner only leaving some of the words are unmistakable. The court added that the use of the same expressive forms is also strenghtened by the common perception of music and art critics. 

For these reasons, the court issued the injunction banning the sale of everything but the plain CD, basically. With a hefty fine attached (€100 for each new infringement following the injunction), walling off the Italian market to the former Pink Floyd bassist (wink wink).

William Xerra's "Vive"

The court’s analysis was nonetheless criticised by some, who inferred that not even Isgrò's work was original because it was inspired by and a continuation of the earlier works by Man Rey (artist William Xerra famously said Rey “lives” on in Isgrò). 

This Kat, though, tends to agree with the court. If we compare first Rey’s and Isgrò’s works, we notice that there is a similarity in the idea, the expression of it is completely different. One erases every word in the text while the other leaves out some words, to compose thoughts and sentences which express something else than deleting. If we confront, in turn, Waters’ album cover with Isgrò’s “Cancellatura”, the expressivity which emerges is the same. There was no effort to contextualise, parody or reference Isgrò’s work. Although the erasure technique has been used in art and in other fields, the use done by Mr. Isgrò is different and stands out, while the album cover does not. It’s just a watered down version.

[Update! Thanks to Kat friend Reinhard Oertli's hint, the decision (in original Italian) can be found here]