Copyright Law - Contemporary Art and the Requirements of Originality and Fixation

The purpose of this dissertation is to present and examine the issues arising from the incompatibilities between Copyright Law and Contemporary Art. In order to understand the reasons for this incompatibility, it is important to understand the fundamental principles behind both the law and the artistic movement. Therefore, we have begun with analysing the history of Copyright Law, from the Statute of Anne to the Berne Convention. In parallel, we delved into the roots of Contemporary Art in Post Modernism and its ideals, to then consider more specifically the Conceptual Art movement and its principles. In addition, we have brought the example of notorious artists in these contexts, such as Marina Abramović, Sol LeWitt and Jospeh Kosuth. To give more flesh to the exposition, an analysis of the differences among systems was necessary: herein these discrepancies are presented through the overview of two specific jurisdictions that stand as example, the United States and Italy.