Mona Lisa
The painting is thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, and is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel. It had been believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506; however, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. Recent academic work suggests that it would not have been started before 1513. It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1797.
George Pusenkoff
Leonardo da Vincis masterpiece Mona Lisa has become part of our cultural memory and has inspired many artists of the 20th century to create their own works with the painting. George Pusenkoff also dealt with the Mona Lisa. In 1993 he painted his first work with an image of the Mona Lisa. Its title is "said Duchamp". Since then, he has repeatedly worked with the image of Mona Lisa, to an extent as no other artist before him:" For Pusenkoff, the Mona Lisa has become his female alter ego, an iconic representation of his own artistic identity."In 1995 George Pusenkoff was sued by the photographer Helmut Newton because he saw in a work of art by Pusenkoff "Power of Blue" a (unauthorized) derivative work of one of his photographs entitled "Miss Livingstone I, Beverly Hills, 1981". Newton argued that Pusenkoff's artwork resembled his work in its critical components so much that it was plagiarism. The Copyright law of Germany clearly regulates in §24 that an "independent" work created in "Fair use (in German "freie Benutzung") of another's work" may be exploited without the author's permission. Pusenkoff referred to this norm. The court now had to decide whether the picture "Power of Blue" was to be regarded as an adaptation or a "fair use". The black and white photography of Helmut Newton shows a female nude from the front, sitting on a folding chair. The background is white, right and left the surroundings can be seen in outlines. The woman sits with her legs widely spread on the chair, one leg bent so that her genitals are clearly visible, and radiates self-confidence. The woman's face is recognizable and at the edge of the photo a stylized, yet recognizable, environment is visible. George Pusenkoff's work, on the other hand, is colored - in the typical deep blue tone quoted from Yves Klein. The nude itself is recognizable only as a silhouette. A yellow square covers the woman's shame and reaches up to her knee. The yellow square is to be understood as a reminiscence of Kasimir Malevich.