The controversy surrounding Glenn Brown’s Turner Prize entry The Loves of Shepherds 2000 and its similarity to Anthony Roberts’ cover illustration for the novel Double Star, brought into public debate a difficult area of UK copyright law: when does inspiration amount to copyright infringement? Most art is inspired at least in part by previous works or schools.
It is common to group artists together based on their style or inspiration – the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, the Impressionists, Les Fauves and so on.
But the law will intervene when the act of appropriation amounts to copyright infringement.
