Public Domain Day was celebrated on January 1, with art and other copyrighted materials from 1925 entering the public domain. Works that are in the public domain may be used freely, without obtaining permission from or compensating a copyright owner.
Along with literary works including F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Franz Kafka’s The Trial, Aldous Huxley’s Those Barren Leaves, and Alain Locke’s The New Negro, among others, we’ve highlighted some of the visual art that entered the public domain last week, with images via Artnet, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and elsewhere.
To view last year’s works which are now copyright-free, please read our 2020 article here. For more releases, including music and film, with notable recordings from Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Duke Ellington, “Fats” Waller and others, please go here.
Edward Hopper (1882–1967), House by the Railroad, 1925. Oil on canvas, 24 x 29 in. (61 x 73.7 cm.). Given anonymously (3.1930). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, New York.
Max Beckmann, Blind Man’s Buff, 1945. Courtesy Minneapolis Institute of Art, Via Artnet.
Joan Miró, The Birth of the World, 1925. Courtesy the Museum of Modern Art, © 2018 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
Tina Modotti, Telephone Wires, Mexico, 1925. Courtesy the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Kumoi-Zakura (Kumoi Cherry Trees)
Hiroshi Yoshida 1920. Via Google Arts and Culture.
