Friday, February 25, 2005

Ward Churchill's Art

This fascinating thread from the Freerepublic convincingly shows that Ward Churchill has been selling plagiarized art from Thomas Mails as original work on Ebay.

The item up for auction now is a very striking and impressive serigraph/lithograph by renowned Native American author and artist, Ward Churchill ( Keetoowah Band Cherokee). Churchill is Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, and is the Coordinator of American Indian Studies at the same institution. He is also Associate Director of the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America and Co-Director of the Colorado Chapter of the American Indian Movement. Additionally he is a member of the American Indian Anti-Defamation Council and the author of many books and scholarly publications

It is the same plagiarized work described in Little Green Footballs and further described by Colorado News4. The News4 man, Raj Chohan, confronted Churchill with a copy of his signed "original" artwork obtained from a buyer called Duke Prentup and was nearly punched for his trouble.

"Get that camera out of my face," Churchill said.

"This is an artwork we've got called 'Winter Attack.' It looks like it was based on a Thomas Mails painting; it looks like you ripped it off. Can you tell us about that?" Chohan asked.

That prompted Churchill to take a swing at Chohan while he held a stack of papers in his hand. The exchange continued:

Chohan: "Sir, that's assault, you can't do that. Can I ask you about this? It looks like you copied it."

Churchill: "I was just grabbed by the arm. And that (camera) gets out of my face."

Chohan: "Sir, we're allowed to take these pictures, this is a public space."

Churchill: "You're not allowed to grab be by the arm."

Chohan: "He didn't touch you sir, we've got it all on tape. Sir, this is called Winter Attack. It's a serigraph by you. It looks like it was copied from Thomas Mails artwork. Can we talk to you about that please?"

Freerepublic posters also discovered what may be more plagiarized Ward Churchill artwork, one of which is a copy of an historic photograph. Stranger and stranger.