If you have recently heard from or done business with a New York art gallery that has Aicon as part of its name, you may want to take a closer look at the dealer’s website or letterhead and make sure you know exactly who you are dealing with. That’s because two businesses, run by two dueling brothers, are in conflict over the use of the name, which, per a lawsuit, denotes a legacy business, Aicon Gallery, which was in operation for 20 years before the brothers parted ways in 2019.
Aicon Contemporary, represented by Projjal Dutta, filed the suit in New York Supreme Court in October against defendants Prajit Dutta and director Harry Hutchison, representing Aicon Art as well as ArtsIndia.com. The suit alleges false designation of origin, unfair competition, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract, based on the defendants’ “misleading and unlawful” use of the name Aicon without the word Art attached to it.
Not only do the brothers share the “Aicon” part of the names of their businesses—they also still share an address, at 35 Great Jones Street, and, according to their respective websites, the same phone number.
Rather than using the name Aicon Art, as the brothers allegedly agreed Prajit and Hutchison would do, they have continued to use Aicon Gallery or simply Aicon to promote their business, “in an attempt, upon information and belief, to monopolize the Aicon name and confuse the art market at the expense of Aicon Contemporary and the legacy business, Aicon Gallery,” according to the suit. The name Aicon Gallery allegedly appears on Aicon Art’s letterhead; a signature block reads “on behalf of Aicon Gallery”; the business has advertised its participation in fairs using only “Aicon,” rather than Aicon Art; and the gallery’s website bears the name Aicon, without the word “art.” The defendants have even allegedly made promotional pens bearing the “Aicon Gallery” misnomer.
The website for Aicon Contemporary.
Aicon Contemporary, the plaintiff, explains on its website that it shows cutting-edge art from constituencies that are underrepresented in New York, often artists who are from “diverse geographies, often distant, immigrant, and / or marginalized,” per that description. The gallery has shown established artists such as M. F. Husain, S. H. Raza, and F. N. Souza, along with younger artists including Abdullah Syed, Abir Karmakar, and Salman Toor, and the gallery and its shows have garnered coverage in publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Artforum. It participates in art fairs including Abu Dhabi Art, Art Mumbai, the Armory Show, the India Art Fair, Expo Chicago, and Zona Maco.
Aicon Art’s website, meanwhile, explains, “At Aicon we specialize in modern and contemporary non-Western art with a focus on South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.” It is participating in this week’s Art Basel Miami Beach fair, and indicates that it has participated in past fairs including some of the same ones as Aicon Contemporary—namely Abu Dhabi Art, Art Mumbai, the Armory Show, and the India Art Fair—as well as Frieze Masters and TEFAF Maastricht. It represents artists including Rasheed Araeen, Faiz Butt, Victor Ekpuk, Surendran Nair, and Saad Qureshi, per its website, and has exhibited artists including Rina Banerjee, M. F. Husain, Suchitra Mattai, F. N. Souza, and Salman Toor.
“Defendants’ aforesaid conduct has been undertaken knowingly, willfully and in bad faith,” says the suit. “Plaintiff has confronted Defendants about their conduct and demanded that they cease and desist but they have refused.”
The plaintiffs are requesting to be awarded damages in an amount to be determined at trial; for Aicon Art to be conjoined from using “Aicon” or “Aicon Gallery” to denote its business; and for Aicon Art to round up and turn over all its incorrectly labeled products, wrappers, signs, electronic files, and other articles bearing the infringing name.
At least, one presumes, they won’t have to carry them very far.
