Introduction

 

The Mouse: Debut, Copyright and Referenced

 

 

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon image originated in 1928 by Walt Disney, whose eponymous corporation continued after his death into the entertainment and media giant it is today, in part through the commercial exploitation of the Mickey Mouse image and the fictional personality associated with it.  At the same time, this image has become an internationally recognized icon of American popular culture.

In the domain of Art the Disney images, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Donald Duck, have been appropriated by over eighty artists in paintings, drawings, and sculpture. One of these paintings now hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. In this dissertation, I examine the process and context in which the Mouse image captured the imagination of artists. This introduction sets the stage for that examination by outlining the history of artists’ appropriation of these images despite the inhibiting effect of the copyright laws. 

Chapter 1 proposes three factors to help explain the attraction of these images for artists. Chapter 2 deals with developments at Disney, and its critics, before the building of the theme parks in 1955, and Chapter 3 examines the 1960s’ artists whose work reflects nostalgia for these early Disney images. In Chapter 4 the Mouse emerges three-dimensionally in Disneyland and Disney World and as well as making a debut on television attracting (or repelling) a new group of cultural critics discussed in Chapter 5. Artists used the Mouse in portraiture (Chapter 6) and as a figure in a narrative incorporating social criticism or, in another vein, mixing the fictional icon of the mouse with depictions of real people and events (Chapter 7). 

 

Debut of the Mouse as an Appropriated Image

The appropriation of the Mouse image by artists was not immediate even though they were very much aware that the Mouse had quickly become a popular image. In 1931 Diego Rivera wrote, “And the esthetes (sic) of that [future] day will find that Mickey Mouse was one of the genuine heroes of American Art in the first half of the twentieth century….”[1]  Also, in the early 1930s, Cole Porter used the Mouse as an example of the finest things in life in the song “You’re the Tops,” putting the Mouse on the same level as such cultural icons as the Mona Lisa and the Coliseum. References to Mickey were easily recognizable in popular culture due to widespread exposure in cartoons, merchandising, and advertisements. Like everyone else, artists were aware of the image but did not   incorporate it into their work until the late 1940s.

In 1948, Mickey and Minnie Mouse images were used in several small collages (ills. 49.1, 49.2. 49.3) by Eduardo Paolozzi,[2] a British artist born in the twenties. In Real Gold, (49.3) Mickey’s image was probably cut from a Disney advertisement or merchandise label. Mickey is juxtaposed with an image of a bikini-clad woman all representative of the land of movie stars and sunshine. In a third collage, Minnie happily dives into a can of wieners. In this small collage, Paolozzi is one of the first artists to comment on Disney asexual characters.  He uses Mickey’s image in a pre-Pop modern celebration of the utopian possibilities. This collage humorously expresses that in Hollywood  rodents are stars. These are positive references to the Mouse, a celebration of utopian possibilities. These collages received little exposure; they were not exhibited. They were only shown as part of a lecture/discussion Paolozzi delivered at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London. This was not open to the public and only a very small group of artists and architects saw the collages.

            Since this very quiet debut into the world of fine arts by Mickey and Minnie in 1948 more than eighty artists have used images of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, or some other Disney character or image in their art, often repeatedly.[3]  In discussing the prevalence of this image with art historians and others, many are surprised at the number of artists who have appropriated the image though most immediately recall images of the Mouse and the Duck in the work of Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, and Warhol. Some recall the political cartoons by Robert Grossman. Some remember the copyright infringement suit by Disney against Dennis Oppenheim for his sculpture Virus, a metal framework on which are displayed a dozen commercially purchased small statuettes of the Mouse and the Duck. Few are aware that Oppenheim won that suit.

 

Copyright Laws: Money and Control

            Artists appropriating the image of the Mouse without the written consent of Disney have always been exposed to the risk of litigation. Disney first copyrighted images of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in 1928. The images of Mickey and Minnie were first seen  in black and white cartoons at the movies.   Mickey had long rubbery arms and legs and his overall body was not as rounded as it later became (ill. 1.11, 1.12).  New copyright claims were filed by Disney as Mickey’s appearance and personality evolved over the years, moving into color and to more rounded forms over time.  From a copyright perspective all the Mickey Mouse images now “belong” to the Disney Corporation. The Disney family, and the corporation it controlled, went to considerable lengths to protect their property. Even the name Walt Disney was registered as a trademark by Roy Disney in the early fifties to prevent anyone from using the name without the permission of the Disney family.[4]  The efforts of Disney’s lawyers to secure and enhance ownership of these images under the law have been extensive and complex. The point here is that Disney has always asserted its worldwide ownership of these images and continues to do so.

In time, copyrights expire and copyrighted images enter the public domain, becoming freely available for use by all. As the earliest Disney copyrights of the Mouse approached expiration Disney participated in extensive lobbying of the U.S. Congress to extend the time of ownership under the copyright law for Disney and others’ images. This effort was successful and the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act was passed in 1998 and signed into law.  Disney’s legal ownership of the Mouse’s image was extended to 2024.[5]  “Disney and Mickey Mouse have been the main targets of critics since the passage of the 1998 measure, which they branded ‘a Mickey Mouse copyright law.’ They contend that Disney and other entertainment industry giants showered Congress with campaign contributions to assure passage of the extension thereby assuring continued income from their exclusive holdings.”[6]   Money to be made from these images is the point. For example, a lawsuit involving Pooh allows a glimpse of just how much money might be at stake. “In 1991, the Pooh Lady went to court to try to get Disney to pay her more….”[7]  Disney did not create Pooh but did acquire exclusive legal rights to use of the image through a license from the heirs of the creator.  “Depending on who is shouting…he and his friends generate anywhere from $1 billion to $6 billion a year in revenue for Disney. That even rivals what Mickey Mouse makes and represents as much as a quarter of Disney’s $25 billion annual operating revenue.”[8]  Revenues from these images are big business and Disney jealously guards its rights to them.

Development of the Mouse as an Appropriated Image

Copyright laws notwithstanding, I have identified more than eighty artists who have appropriated these very popular, protected images. For nearly 10 years I have collected images by these artists, which I have discovered to be a truly international group spread over three generations, and whose art covers many different styles and media. As a whole these images have never been brought together and  analyzed before. In this dissertation, I  consider how and why they have used Disney’s  images.[9] 

      The first generation of these artists became familiar with Disney images through

 

movies, comic books, movie posters, books, merchandise, and the Mickey Mouse Clubs.

 

 Also, the Museum of Modern Art, in its 1930’s surrealism show, exhibited certain

 

Disney studio cartoons and painted animation drawings used in film making. The second

 

generation was also exposed to the image through many of these sources, as well as

 

through television and Disneyland because the Mouse was no longer at the movies. The

 

third generation received additional exposure to the Mouse as a Disney logo on many

 

different products and parks as Disney expanded internationally. The second and third

 

 generation artists were familiar with the work of earlier artists, as well as Mouse images

 

 promulgated by Disney itself. Almost all of these images, especially Mickey Mouse, are

 

 very easily recognizable even though they have been executed in many different styles

 

 and media. Many of the artists are known internationally and are familiar to the general

 

 public. Not only are there many artists from the United States, as would be expected, but

 

 also numerous British, French, Spanish, Austrian, Mexican, Columbian, Japanese and

 

 Chinese artists.  No medium has been overlooked. To capture and make the Mouse and

 

 other Disney characters and images their own the artists have used collage, painting,

 

 drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, performance, video, textile and mixed

 

media techniques and materials. Many of these artists have used the Mouse or Duck

 

only once or twice. Those who have used the same or multiple forms of the image many

 

times over many years include Lichtenstein, Helnwein, Oldenburg, Pensato, Ospina, and

 

 Chagoya. Some have used the image more persistently than others have. Most of the

 

 images are straightforward, but some are not. For example, Christian Boltanski installed

 

 photographs of children, who were members (fans) of the 1955 French Mickey Mouse

 

 Club (ills. 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3). Rhonda Zwillinger (ill. 76.1) incorporated the castle at

 

 Disneyland into one of her paintings. Burt Payne 3 and Steve Hillenburg (ill. 32.1) used

 

 the image of Walt Disney himself in a small plastic sculpture: Walt Disney with mouse

 

 ears encased in clear plastic—the frozen Walt doll.[10] Some of these artists have

 

produced a significant body of work based on the Mouse.

Of course, Mickey Mouse’s image did not exist before Disney introduced it in 1928. While there had been other cartoons before Mickey, the Mouse was the first cartoon released with sound. In one of the earliest cartoons Mickey’s image clearly references the popular and heroic figure of Charles Lindbergh, the first aviator to cross the Atlantic alone. Disney referenced popular images that helped to establish the Mouse’s own popularity.

The Mouse has been recognizable internationally for seventy years. Less than two years after the release of the first Mickey Mouse cartoons the first Mickey Mouse Clubs were started. By 1932 there were more than one million members in the United States, Canada and Great Britain.[11]  According to Heide and Gilman these clubs were the main outlets for the promotion and distribution of Disney products. Since 1930 Disney has engaged in the legal licensing of images to various other companies. Endless merchandise using the Mouse theme or logo has been produced, marketed, purchased, collected and catalogued. The royalties from the sales of these goods are and has been an important source of revenue for Disney.[12] This was how the image was market when the first generation of artists were children.

The first group of appropriators were the Pop artists of the early sixties. The use of Mickey Mouse in Pop art was a reference through one image to two concepts—a juxtaposition of the commercial with art by a “fine” artist. Oldenburg and Warhol also referenced capitalist models of commercial and industrial enterprise in their art by calling their studios the “store” and the “factory.” Warhol and Lichtenstein also referred in their art to readymade commercial products and to processes of advertising. Lichtenstein references commercial process with his representation of the mechanical benday dots, which he produced semi-mechanically and hugely magnified.[13]  Warhol references it with his use of silk-screened paintings.

The critics of the time did not accept their work but dealers, buyers, museums, the public and the public press immediately accepted it. They combined with art an image (Mickey Mouse) produced by a sort of commercial entertainment factory. They referenced Disney, the maker of a very popular commercial image, and Mickey Mouse, the actual image. Disney and Mickey Mouse were a phenomenon in the world of popular entertainment in the thirties. Similarly, these artists were a phenomenon in the fine art world.

In light of Disney’s jealous guarding of its rights under the copyright laws it is noteworthy that many, but not all, artists have been allowed to use the Mickey and Donald images without legal challenge. When asked this question years ago Lichtenstein responded that Disney “just let him.”[14]  The question “why” will be addressed in Chapter 1. A very large group of artists began to include Disney images in their work in the eighties. Their work was created and shown in New York, London, and Paris (even before Disneyland was built near Paris.) This is not a regional art phenomenon, or a provincial art movement. Artistic use of the image exploded in the Pop art movement, which itself was once dismissed by some as “kitsch,” as it was championed by others. The use of the Mouse has since extended far beyond that, into a variety of contexts which we will examine. New artists using Disney images are still being added to the list, The Mouse is everywhere, but as Peter Selz asked in December 1962, “…when we look back does it become a work of art?”[15]

         We are now in a position to look back and these images are indeed considered art. In response to Peter Selz’ question Henry Geldzahler argued that it is art because artists did it. Beyond that, these images are “Art,” not just because they are paintings by artists, but also because they have been shown in art galleries, received major media attention as fine art, sold as fine art, bought by art collectors, and sold to museums as fine art.[16]  The Mouse has moved into major museums.[17]  As a result museums have validated it as art. This social and institutional process is an interesting one but not the focus of this thesis. Rather, I am simply observing that it has occurred, as a given historical fact. 

My focus is on the artists who have used the Mouse and other characters,[18] and how and why they put them to use. I have developed a list of these artists and their use of these images. These artists chose to use images of a fictional, humanoid Mouse with attendant voice and personality, the rights to which are owned and promoted by a successful and popular mass media entertainment corporation. The images, voices, and personalities of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Minnie Mouse are so familiar that many of us sometimes inadvertently refer to them as though they actually existed. We know who they are, what they look like, how they sound, and how they act—or do we?