Do you know of any modern art inspired by traditional art?

Is it legal to create visual art inspired by literature or music and sell it?

• I'm an artist and I've been inspired by passages of literature and lyrics of song to create artworks of my own interpretation of those lyrics and words. But is this legal? Because I know if you draw your own interpretation of say, the character Harry Potter, it is considered fan art and under the copyright of the original author, so you can't sell it. But older literature characters, like Odysseus or Beowulf have been depicted and sold many times. So is it just the classic case of the literature/music being copyrighted throughout the author's life plus 70 years afterwards like most copyrighted material? What about lyrics or literature that don't define a specific character but just the actions/reactions of people or animals or what have you, and you are inspired to create artworks by that? I know this is a complicated question, I just hope I'm making sense, so you can understand and help me make sense of all this. Because I wouldn't want to "steal" someone else's work. Thank you!

• Answer:

  Legally, it has to be less than half of the original sample if the sample was produced within the past 50 years and the rights were not renewed. Outside of lalalegaland, just use your best judgement. Some artists whose work intersects with this conversation: Andy Warhol's Soup Cans. Damien Hirst's Portraits of the Meth Addict. Anything done by Ray Johnson. Barbara Krueger Brandon Bird (works with celebrity likenesses) Duchamp