Each year on 1 January thousands of US copyrights expire, allowing creative works to be shared in the the public domain (copyrights on works—published books, films, songs and art—typically last for 95 years). There are differing copyright laws globally but in the US, UK, and some European countries, works of single authorship generally retain copyright protections for the life of the author plus 70 years. So authors and creators who died in 1954 are now due to seep into the public consciousness like never before.
According to the UK journal, The Public Domain Review, works by Henri Matisse, Robert Capa, and Frida Kahlo lose their copyright protections this year (the review’s annual countdown calendar is a fun way of seeing whose work becomes “free to enjoy, share, and reuse for any purpose”). Hyperallergic notes that “having the life work [of Kahlo] enter the hands of the people at last through the public domain seems most in line with her socialist and anti-capitalist ideologies and activism”. Works by Matisse, a titan of 20th-century art, will become even more ubiquitous (think of La Danse, 1909-10, and his revolutionary cut-outs). The original Popeye and Tintin characters also enter the public domain (eat some spinach in celebration).
