Jeff Dieschburg (born in 1998) is an artist born in Strassen, Luxembourg. He was educated at the Athénée de Luxembourg and then went on to study art at the University of Strasbourg where he gained a bachelor's degree in visual arts. Dieschburg paints figuratively in oil and revisits in his works the heritage of the old masters.

Kingdom Come by Jeff Dieschburg is a portrait of the Grand Duchess Marie Adélaide of Luxembourg. The painting juxtaposes its historical figure with the character of Gretchen, from Goethe's Faust.

Dieschburg gained recognition by winning prizes in several art competitions and his painting Kingdom Come, a portrait of the former Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde, was much appreciated, with the artwork being featured in newspapers and even presented to Princess Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. Dieschburg also entered an artwork (Prometheus or the price of our hubris) ^[1] for the ViArt biennale in Vianden and the painting subsequently won 4th prize.^[2]

Copyright law case

In 2022 Dieschburg exhibited an artwork named Turandot (a diptych, oil on wood: the left panel shows the Chinese princess Turandot and the right panel shows a severed head, a self-portrait of Dieschburg as a victim of the princess). The myth of Turandot doesn't know emblematic representations in the history of classical oil painting, even tough it concentrates on the typical cultural woman type of the "femme fatale". Therefore, Dieschburg chose to base the iconography of his diptych on the artistic codes of a similar legend, namely the one of Salome and the head of John the Baptist. Strassen Biennial of Contemporary Art art competition in Luxembourg rewarded him with a prize of €1500 for the works he presented, including "Kingdom Come". His art was described as "original, combining classical European art styles with a more modern vibe."^[3]

Singaporean photographer Zhang Jingna later accused Dieschburg of plagiarizing her work, a fashion photography she took for Harper's Bazaar Vietnam in 2017. Dieschburg claimed that he was not inspired by Zhangs photograph but rather by the paraphrase of it done by Spanish artist Catalin Ilinca, named Cherry blossom (L'une 82) ^[4]

The case was taken to court but Zhang lost,as judges found that her "photograph did not meet the requirements to be covered by Luxembourg or European copyright law, asserting that “there was insufficient originality in the photo.”^[5] In a June 2022 interview Dieschburg with apart TV, several months before the verdict, he alleged that the photograph in question copied itself closely from historical models. Furthermore, he stated that copying and being inspired by other artists is a common thing in art.^[6]

The whole case was vastly discussed in social media. A former school friend of Dieschburg ^[7] as well as anonymous social media users, pretended to be him by hacking and creating fake accounts under Dieschburg's name ^[8] to further spread false information and slander the painter who, as consequence, became the target of extreme hate and received death threats.^[9]

See also

• Martin Eder

References