The art world is rife with struggles regarding attribution and copyright, especially when it comes to things as vague as inspiration and reference.
A model from Singapore is currently in the middle of one of these struggles, as she believes a professional photo of her was stolen and used as a direct reference for a nude painting by a Russian artist, essentially lifting her face and placing it onto a nude body.
Yue claims that Poveteva used a photograph of her as the basis and direct reference for Poveteva's now award-winning nude painting "Time to open your eyes" without any permission, credit, or compensation. Not to mention the original photo was not a nude portrait, making it feel very violative.
Yue since re-uploaded it to Twitter with the caption, "[...] [I] think this shows how vulgar it is for a nude painting of me to be exhibited and sold without consent… please retweet until it comes back up on [TikTok.]"
The Tweet currently has over 23k retweets and 53k likes.
Poveteva denied the accusation. She tried to claim the reference photo used was of another model, but the photos of said model that were sent to Yue were proven to be photoshopped to look more like her. Poveteva also claimed she wouldn't sell the painting, but has already sold the original copy for over $10k.
In a screenshotted text conversation featured in the video, she explains that the original picture of her was taken shortly after she turned 18, and seeing her younger self pasted onto a nude body "paraded around like that, without [my] consent" has left her feeling "shattered."
In the meantime, she's asking that people share her story so Poveteva can be held accountable.
Right now, it seems that Poveteva has gone dark on social media, so only time will tell how this will resolve. You can watch Yue's TikTok here, but know that it does contain uncensored versions of the full nude portrait.
