Johannesburg - American singer Ariana Grande – along with Freenjoy Inc, the production company behind her God is a Woman music video – are being sued by surrealist artist and sculptor Vladimir Kush after allegedly ripping off his imagery, according to TMZ.
The Russian-born artist requested an injunction against Ariana and her team to make them take down the video, which has more than 197 million YouTube views.
He says imagery from two of his paintings, The Candle and The Candle Two, were used without his permission. The paintings, which he says were created more than 20 years before the video was produced, feature a silhouetted woman dancing in a candle flame as light beams outwards in front of a cloudy sky.
In Ariana’s music video the singer is the woman dancing in the candle’s flame.
According to the Daily Mail Vladimir is suing Ariana and her team for copyright infringement for reportedly duplicating the imagery.
This isn’t the first time the same production team has found itself in hot water when it comes to copyright infringement, in the suit Vladimir stated that a different artist sued the production company over Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s All the Stars music video.
SOURCES: TMZ, Dailymail, Complex
