{"id":2033734,"date":"2026-07-08T20:04:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2033734"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:04:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:04:22","slug":"mickalene-thomas-accused-of-copyright-infringement-in-new-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2033734","title":{"rendered":"Mickalene Thomas Accused of Copyright Infringement in New Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tMickalene Thomas, an artist known for her popular paintings and photo-based installations centering Black women, is facing a lawsuit from the photographer Barbara Karant, who alleges that Thomas used her pictures without attribution or permission in works that appeared at an array of museums and blue-chip galleries.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn installation after installation, and in collage after collage, Thomas has engaged in the wholesale copying of copyrighted works from a fellow artist,\u201d the lawsuit claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tFiled last month in Illinois\u2019s North District Court, Karant\u2019s lawsuit revolves around the photographer\u2019s images of the Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company, which owned the publications Ebony<\/em> and Jet<\/em> until 2016. Once considered the largest Black-run publishing firm in the US, the company went out of business in 2019, though its publications remain a point of reference for many artists, including Theaster Gates, who owns many historic photographs and objects from the company\u2019s holdings. (A consortium of foundations acquired the publications\u2019 photo archives of more than 4 million prints and negatives in 2019, with plans to donate them to the Getty Research Institute and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.) <\/p>\n

\n\tStarting in 2013, one year after the Johnson Publishing Company vacated its longtime home, Karant began visiting the company\u2019s headquarters to photograph its interiors. The resulting series, completed in 2015, is known as \u201c820 Ebony\/Jet\u201d; it comprises 250 images, according to the suit. Karant\u2019s filing notably mentions that she is preparing a book of these photographs that is due out in September; the book includes writings by scholars such as Cheryl Finley and Deborah Willis.<\/p>\n

\n\tKarant\u2019s photographs feature empty hallways, offices, and lobbies, often with an attention to evidence of their past usage. In a New York Times<\/em> article from 2015, the late photography curator Maurice Berger praised the works for implicitly contending with how the company\u2019s magazines were \u201ccommitted to altering how African-Americans were represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn this context,\u201d Berger wrote, \u201cMs. Karant\u2019s photographs depict more than just the desolate remains of a once vital building: They make visible, in ways both compelling and poignant, an important aspect of the company\u2019s self-image.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThomas declined to comment on the lawsuit. A lawyer for Karant declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

\n\tKarant\u2019s photographs have figured in some of Thomas\u2019s recent shows, including one staged at New York\u2019s L\u00e9vy Gorvy Dayan gallery in 2021 that featured pixelated versions of Karant\u2019s pictures. The release for that exhibition noted that, for Thomas, \u201cengaging in a cultural touchstone like Jet<\/em> underscores her determined commitment to visibility, and historical and contemporary celebrations of Blackness, femininity, and queerness.\u201d The release did not name Karant.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMickalene Thomas: All About Love,\u201d a survey of the artist\u2019s work that first appeared at the Broad museum in Los Angeles in 2024, featured even more direct versions of Karant\u2019s photographs. The survey went on to travel to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, the Hayward Gallery in London, and Les Abattoirs in Toulouse, France.<\/p>\n

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When Mickalene Thomas\u2019s survey visited the Hayward Gallery in 2025, it contained a backdrop that included Barbara Karant\u2019s photographs.<\/span>Photo Devika Bilimoria\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIn that survey, Karant\u2019s photographs of an elegant Johnson Publishing Company floor, for example, acted as the backdrop for Thomas\u2019s collaged paintings.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit did not make it clear to what extent, if at all, Thomas\u2019s backdrops constitute discrete artworks. Based on documentation of the exhibition, it appears that Thomas edited Karant\u2019s photographs, which are fragmented and cropped in some cases. Karant claims that this \u201ccopying was unauthorized and without attribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Thomas\u2019s survey opened in 2024, Karant says that she did not become aware of the installations containing versions of her images until 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tKarant\u2019s lawsuit also draws attention to certain paintings by Thomas that utilize elements from the \u201c820 Ebony\/Jet\u201d pictures. Nus Exotiques #10<\/em> (2025), a painting by Thomas that is reproduced in Karant\u2019s lawsuit, visibly features a window from one of Karant\u2019s photographs that Thomas turned on its side. In the Thomas painting, the window is situated next to a nude Black woman.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of these instances show that Thomas \u201cused Karant\u2019s photography to enhance her reputation and sell her work,\u201d according to Karant\u2019s lawsuit. In total, the lawsuit claims that Thomas appropriated \u201cmore than a dozen\u201d of Karant\u2019s photographs from the \u201c820 Ebony\/Jet\u201d series.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlongside Thomas, the lawsuit names four galleries\u2014L\u00e9vy Gorvy Dayan, Yancey Richardson, Kavi Gupta, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia\u2014as defendants because they exhibited works by the artist that feature Karant\u2019s images. <\/p>\n

\n\tL\u00e9vy Gorvy Dayan said in a statement that it is \u201cdeeply respectful of all artists\u2019 rights and creativity and has deep admiration for artists\u2019 creative processes\u201d and declined to comment further because the case was still pending. Yancey Richardson and Galerie Nathalie Obadia declined to comment. Kavi Gupta did not respond to request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tThomas, who recently made the \u201cTime 100\u201d list, is also currently facing a lawsuit from her former romantic partner Racquel Chevremont, who alleged the artist mismanaged money, harassed her, and created an \u201cabusive workplace environment\u201d last year. A spokesperson for the artist denied these allegations, describing them as \u201ca desperate attempt to remain relevant and profit off Mickalene\u2019s hard-earned reputation, career achievements, and legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2241795731.jpg?w=1024″] Mickalene Thomas, an artist known for her popular paintings and photo-based installations centering Black women, is facing a lawsuit from the photographer Barbara Karant, who alleges that Thomas used her pictures without attribution or permission in works that appeared at an array of museums and blue-chip galleries. \u201cIn installation after installation, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2033734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2033734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2033734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2033734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2033734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}