In 1976, Henry Lydiate, then a newly qualified barrister, received funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to set up a practice specifically providing legal advice to visual artists. Artlaw Services provided free information and legal advice to artists until 1983, when funding cuts meant the advice could no longer be given for free.

Since this time, Henry has also been writing his 'Artlaw' column in Art Monthly, covering relevant and contemporary issues facing visual artists and craftspeople. Henry's columns refer to current legal and related issues in the art world. This archive, comprising every article written by Henry and published under the 'Artlaw' banner in Art Monthly, is therefore an historical document; this should be kept in mind when looking up relevant legislation or information about your legal problems.

In 2002, Henry and Artquest began collaborating on this archive. Articles will be archived here one month after they have been published in the newest edition of Art Monthly, ensuring the archive is kept up to date.

The archive is split into thirteen sections, accessible via the menu at the top of each screen.  Articles are accessed via the menus on the left of the screen, with the oldest at the bottom and newest at the top. The year in which the article was published is noted in the copyright notice at the foot of each article; where no year is noted, we do not have details of what the year of publication was. You can deduce this approximately from the years of publication noted on the articles before and after that entry.

Artlaw was launched at the old Royal Army Medical College, now Chelsea School of Art, in Millbank on 27 May 2003.

Please note: This archive contains many contact details, service advertisements and other opportunities which may no longer be valid. For up to date contacts and services for artists, please refer to the Artquest website or the individual links pages in each Artlaw section.  The basic outlines to current legistlation still apply (except in the Copyright before 1989 section, which is included for completeness of the archive and historical interest) but if you are in any doubt you should contact a legal advisor.

Further links and helpful pages
You can check the advice and information on this site's individual sections, both in the articles and in the Useful Links pages in each part.

To find out more about what Artquest does and for whom, see the Artquest website.