Jo Young Nam shares how his singing career started on KBS’ “Star Date.” (Photo : You Tube/KBS World TV)
Jo Young Nam is in hot water after he was accused of plagiarizing many artworks. A certain Mr. Song came forward and revealed that the popular Korean singer-turned-painter took the credit for at least 300 paintings that he actually created himself. Apparently, Jo sold the paintings under his own name.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the prosecutors are now planning to indict the singer some time next week. He will be charged with plagiarism because he has been selling paintings that were painted by someone else for the past eight years.
The controversy started when Jo's ghost painter, known as Mr. Song, surfaced and was interviewed by a local TV broadcasting network. He claimed that Jo hired him to paint and was paid KRW100,000 for each art piece.
Song is a 61-year-old unknown painter from Sokcho. He revealed that Jo often hold exhibits and his paintings are always presented as Jo's own artworks.
Song further disclosed that the singer sold 30 paintings at one point and earned about KRW170 million, an amount which is many times higher than what he received as payments. For this, he decided to ask for a higher rate, but instead of granting the request, Jo insulted him by saying that he is already being paid much more than a taxi driver, Korea Times reported.
During the initial investigations, Jo admitted that he has an assistant who help with his paintings but denied that it was plagiarism. He claimed that the practice of hiring a helper is just a normal thing for seasoned painters.
The legendary singer explained that he only relayed his ideas and then his assistant painted that "idea" on canvas. Once done, he is the one who completes the work using his own finishing touches.
Artists have different views on this controversy. Art critic Jung Joon Mo said that while it can be true that there are artists who hire assistants, he said that this is only acceptable in certain genres like pop art or large-scale media art since these types of artworks often had to be reproduced in multiple numbers.
On the other hand, critic Chin Jung Kwon believes that the main problem in this case is simply the payment because KRW100,000 won is very low for any art piece.
Watch Jo sings "You Raise Me Up" in an episode of JTBC's "Off to School"
