The owner of the Laba label, Gerhard Zschau, with the Corpus Delicti.
Photo: LABA Görlitz
The “Art Freedom Travel Group” has to get up early on December 20th. On Friday at 5:43 a.m., friends and supporters of Gerhard Zschau board the train in Görlitz to travel to Berlin. Zschau runs the Laba fashion label in the East Saxon city, which combines regional craftsmanship with ecological and sustainable standards. But he doesn’t travel to the capital four days before Christmas Eve to offer his sweaters, scarves and hats as Christmas presents. In fact, he has to appear in court for the third time because a woman objects to her youth portrait being shown on one of the T-shirts distributed by Zschau. He lost the first trial in Görlitz and won the second in Dresden. Because the person portrayed didn’t want to accept that, she now goes to Berlin.
The controversial piece of clothing is part of a series called “Old Masters,” with which Zschau wants to make artists from Lusatia better known and also do good: part of the sales proceeds go to projects such as Mission Lifeline and the Oberlausitzer Tafel. The first three motifs came from Paul Sinkwitz, Rudolf Warnecke and Johannes Wüsten. They show the Sorbian legendary figure Pumphut, the mystical Rübezahl, who lives in the Giant Mountains, and the Bautzen “Hexenhäusl”.
“The case has taken on personally and commercially threatening characteristics.”
Gerhard Zschau Profit Label
Fourth in line, he selected Hanka Krawcec. Many landscapes and portraits have come down to us by the Sorbian artist born in 1901, who, among other things, designed the Domowina logo, including that of a young woman named “Monika”, which was created in the 1960s first as a drawing and then as an expressive linocut and Zschau auf convinced at first glance. He researched rights holders, but they didn’t exist. Krawcec died childless in 1990; no other relatives are known. An initial edition of 100 copies was printed and, just to be on the safe side, an article was published in the Sorbian newspaper “Serbske Nowiny” shortly before the premiere of “Old Master”. A letter then came from a lawyer: The woman who was once portrayed as “Monika” banned the sale of the T-shirts.
The constellation in which the personal rights of those portrayed and artistic freedom conflict with each other is explosive even beyond the specific case. This raises the question of whether museums that print works of art on cups or bags will in future have to ask not only the artists but also their former models for consent. “Monika” is not fundamentally opposed to the publication of the linocut, which has previously been printed several times in catalogs. However, she assumes that Zschau’s intentions are purely commercial and contradicts this with reference to the art copyright law, which states: “Images may only be distributed or publicly displayed with the consent of the person depicted.”
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The matter is obviously legally difficult. In a first decision, the Görlitz regional court found the plaintiff right. This ruling was overturned by the Dresden Higher Regional Court in April 2023. It decided that the personal rights of those portrayed were affected. However, they are not “degraded” by the picture and, decades after it was created, they do not have to fear being unwantedly recognized beyond their closest circle of acquaintances. Zschau was also credited with wanting to promote Sorbian art and donating part of the proceeds. The court said that constitutionally guaranteed artistic freedom was also in his favour.
But the matter was not over there. Both judgments were issued in summary proceedings. The plaintiff decided to fight the case in the main proceedings. The case is being heard at the Berlin Regional Court before a chamber that specializes in art copyright law cases. For Zschau and the Laba label, the legal dispute has now taken on “personally and commercially threatening characteristics”. If he loses in Berlin, he will also have to bear the costs of the previous proceedings. He is hoping for donations. Because of the financial risk, he decided to impose a “household lockdown”, not to design a new collection and not to have any motifs reprinted. This also applies to the “Old Master” T-shirt with the portrait of Monika. However, there are still a few copies of the second edition, again comprising 100 copies, in stock.
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