Artist behind Chicago's 'The Bean' asked NRA to stop using it in ad. Now he's suing
Anish Kapoor, the man who created Chicago's popular landmark nicknamed "The Bean" has sued the National Rifle Association for showing the shiny sculpture in one of its recruitment ads — an unauthorized use of a copyright image, he says .
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, demands that the NRA stop running the video that shows the sculpture — officially named "Cloud Gate" — and seeks $150,000 in statutory damages per copyright infringement, along with attorney fees, reported Curbed Chicago.
Installed in Chicago's Millennium Park in 2006, the 110-ton sculpture shaped like a jellybean with a mirror-like finish quickly became an icon, a tourist magnet and popular backdrop for photos and selfies. The Chicago Sun-Times has called it "this city’s equivalent of the Eiffel Tower."
The British-born Kapoor first put the NRA on notice in March when he wrote an open letter to the group about its June 2017 ad called "The Clenched Fist of Truth," according to The Hill.
"(The video) plays to the basest and most primal impulses of paranoia, conflict and violence, and uses them in an effort to create a schism to justify its most regressive attitudes,” Kapoor wrote in the letter, posted to his website.
“Hidden here is a need to believe in a threatening ‘Other’ different from ourselves. I am disgusted to see my work — in truth the sculpture of the people of Chicago — used by the NRA to promote their vile message.”
In a news release about the lawsuit, Kapoor said he's been "overwhelmed and moved by the support of so many people who, like me, are appalled by the NRA’s divisive and hate-filled campaign against the democratic and humane values of the people of America," The Chicago Tribune reported.
"In light of this solidarity and support I am encouraged to confront this organization and hold it to account for its blatant copyright infringement.”
The ad in question is narrated by NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch and uses an "us vs. them" theme as images of violent protests and landmarks across the country — including The Bean, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial — flash quickly across the screen to an ominous soundtrack.
"They use their media to assassinate real news. They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler. They use their movie stars and singers and comedy shows and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again," Loesch narrates.
"And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance, all to make them march, make them protest, make them scream racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia, to smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law-abiding, until the only option left is for the police to do their jobs and stop the madness.
"And when that happens, they'll use it as an excuse for their outrage. The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom is to fight this violence of lies with a clenched first of truth.
"I'm the National Rifle Association of America and I am freedom's safest place."
According to Curbed Chicago, the lawsuit mentions that Kapoor has repeatedly reached out to the NRA to remove the image of the sculpture from the ad. He registered "Cloud Gate" with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2016, according to The Hill.
The NRA has not responded to requests for comment from media outlets including Curbed Chicago, The Hill and the Chicago Tribune.
This story was originally published June 22, 2018 at 10:14 AM with the headline "Artist behind Chicago's 'The Bean' asked NRA to stop using it in ad. Now he's suing."