Kent Twitchell

Kent Twitchell (born 1942, Lansing, Michigan) is an American muralist who is most active in Los Angeles. He is most famous for his larger-than-life photorealist mural portraits, often of celebrities and artists.

Twitchell joined the United States Air Force and was stationed in London, where he served as an illustrator.

Upon his discharge, he studied art at East Los Angeles College (AA, 1968), California State University, Los Angeles (BA, 1972), and the Otis College of Art and Design (MFA, 1977). He was active in the creation of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles and served on its advisory board. In 1992 he won a major victory for the cause of legal protection of murals as public art when a court awarded him damages for the destruction of his mural "The Freeway Lady". Shortly after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, when his studio was destroyed, Twitchell and his family moved to northern California.

In 2008 he settled a lawsuit against the U.S. Government and 12 other defendants for painting over his 70-foot tall landmark mural of Edward Ruscha, an important Los Angeles-based Pop artist. The settlement amount – $1.1 million – is believed to be the largest settlement ever under the seldom-invoked Federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) or the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA). VARA and CAPA forbid desecration, alteration, or destruction of certain public works of art without prior notice to the artist to allow for removal. The U.S. Government is contributing $250,000 to the settlement amount. William Brutocao, with the intellectual property law firm Sheldon Mak Rose & Anderson PC, served as Mr. Twitchell’s lead trial attorney in this complex and legally-challenging case. “This settlement sets an important precedent which will benefit other artists,” said Mr. Twitchell. “This resolution makes it clear that when it comes to public art, you have to respect the artist’s rights, or incur significant liability.”

Well-known works

External links

* [http://www.kenttwitchell.com Kent Twitchell] at KentTwitchell.com

* [http://www.lamurals.org/MuralistPages/Twitchell.html Kent Twitchell] at lamurals.org
* [http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles2005/Articles0105/KTwitchellA.html Kent Twitchell] at LAartscene.org
*imdb title|id=0125626|title=Kent Twitchell: Portrait of a Muralist