An artist from Las Vegas, Vladimir Kush, said that that the scene of the singer dancing inside a candle flame was ripped off from his art: two paintings, called “The Candle” and “The Candle 2”, he made 20 years ago.
Vladimir Kush filed a lawsuit in a Nevada court at the end of January.
“This depiction of Ms. Grande is strikingly similar to Plaintiffs’ copyrighted Works,” said Mark Tratos the attorney of Vladimir. The suit notes that Kush was never contacted about the possible use of his work in Grande’s music video.
“While there are many ways to represent a woman dancing in the wick of a candle even with a heavenly background – defendants obviously copied Mr. Kush’s representation of this idea,” the suit insists. “Specifically, defendants chose to use the same color palette, the same background of a cloudy sky, the same ring effect of the clouds around the flame, the same light beams radiating from the flame, and the same color candle, light fading to dark.”
According to TMZ, in the lawsuit, Kush pointed out that Freenjoy, Inc., the company which produced the “God is a Woman”, was also associated in producing Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “All the Stars” music video last year. A different artist has also accused the company over the visual for the rappers’ clip, claiming they’d “borrowed” it.