The group of artists known as Red Rag to a Bull which includes artrepublic legends James Cauty and Jamie Reid have come to the rescue of Leytonstone based graffiti artist Cartrain.
17 year old stencil artist Cartrain had been threatened with legal action over the unauthorised use of Brit Art pioneer Damien Hirst’s iconic ‘For the Love of God’ image.
Cartrain who had taken Mr Hirst’s diamond encrusted skull image and incorporated it into a series of graffiti collages settled out of court for £200.
This is where James Cauty and Jamie Reid stepped in and produced two very limited edition parody prints of Damien Hirst’s art, to raise money for Cartrain.
The Red Rag to a Bull, website was created to sell the prints and was inundated with requests. The prints sold out in two days and raised enough money for the collective of artists to compensate Cartrain the £200 he had paid Mr Hirst.
James Cauty who was at the forefront of the campaign had this to say “What Cartrain was doing is something all artist have done” “He fancied using a bit of Damien Hirst’s work but added to it himself. If it was a case of simply bootlegging Mr Hirst’s work then it would be different”
Cartrain who styles himself on Banksy said “James Cauty inspired me to become an artist along with Banksy – I am amazed he would want to help me out”
Red Rag to a Bull stated that the creation of the website and the sale of the work were not intended as a crusade against Mr Hirst but were intended as a “creative exercise” to mock the “over bearing thoughtless approach to copyright control”.
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