Face-Off Over T-Shirts : Judge Bans Vendor From Selling Likeness of Christo the Artist on Clothing

Planting 1,760 giant yellow umbrellas all over the Tejon Pass may be the cutting edge of artistic expression.

But selling unauthorized T-shirts with umbrellas sprouting from the artist’s head is going too far.

It’s an invasion of privacy and infringement of copyright laws, said a Kern County Superior Court judge.

The judge issued an injunction Thursday barring a Lebec entrepreneur from selling the shirts without the permission of Christo, the unconventional mastermind behind the umbrella project.

Judge Arthur E. Wallace ordered William Converse to stop distributing the T-shirts with Christo’s face and to turn over the unsold inventory to the Bulgarian artist. Converse, who set up a concession stand in Lebec next door to the office he rented to Christo, hoped to sell 502 T-shirts for $12 each.

The huge umbrellas will stretch for 18 miles along Interstate 5 and will be on display for three weeks beginning Oct. 8.

State law prohibits the unauthorized use of a person’s name, likeness or a direct copy of an artist’s work, said UC Berkeley Prof. Stephen Barnett, a specialist in intellectual property law.

In this case, Christo was bothered by more than the unauthorized use of his likeness on a T-shirt.

He just didn’t like it.

His manager, Tom Golden, said Christo was offended by the shirt, which showed the bespectacled artist surrounded by some of his famous creations, such as the giant nylon fence he erected in Northern California and the Florida islands he wrapped in pink fabric. The umbrellas grew out of his head.

However, Christo will not prevent the sale of some items commemorating the event, such as those featuring umbrellas against a mountainside with the words “Lebec 1991.”

“You can’t copyright an umbrella,” said Jerome Siegan, one of his attorneys.

About 25 T-shirts had been sold when Converse received a fax Wednesday informing him that he had been sued.

Converse said the matter could have been easily settled out of court. “It was like using a sledgehammer to smash an ant.”