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# Kelly Reemtsen sues David Salle for copyright infringement over ‘Hatchet’
- URL: https://www.urgentmatter.press/kelly-reemtsen-sues-david-salle-for-copyright-infringement-over-hatchet/
- Published: 2026-09-09T01:28:56.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-09T01:28:56.000Z
- Description: The lawsuit said Salle admitted in an email that his painting “incorporates an image from one of yours."
- Author: Adam Schrader
- Tags: Law and Crime, #public-access

Painter and printmaker Kelly Reemtsen has sued artist David Salle for copyright infringement, alleging that his 2025 painting *Hatchet* copied a striped-dress woman wielding a tool that appears in her work.

Reemtsen filed the complaint June 22 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She is asking the court to order that *Hatchet* be destroyed or handed over to her and to stop Salle from selling or showing it. She also asked the court to award her damages and Salle’s profits from the work.

The lawsuit quotes an email Salle sent Reemtsen on March 3\. “You are no doubt aware, there has been some internet chatter recently about a painting of mine that incorporates an image from one of yours - from the ‘women holding tools’ series (not the actual title),” he wrote.

“Although I have not seen it in person, I discovered your work online (how things are done these days I suppose), and admired it very much,” the email continued.

***Paid subscribers can*** [***read the full lawsuit***](https://www.urgentmatter.press/court-documents-reemtsen-v-salle/)***.***

[Court Documents: Kelly Reemtsen sues David Salle over ‘Hatchet’Reemtsen’s June 22 copyright complaint against David Salle and the case docket, via CourtListener and PACER![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/icon/urgent-matter-icon-2768fbf4-84c6-4adb-ae72-be18e77244b7.jpg)Urgent MatterAdam Schrader![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/thumbnail/urgent-matter-icon-2-723acd65-a22a-4cd1-a208-06eb51b32d6d.jpg)](https://www.urgentmatter.press/court-documents-reemtsen-v-salle/)

Reemtsen’s suit rests on two paintings she registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. One, *Impact*, shows a woman in a black-and-white striped dress holding a sledgehammer and was registered January 13, 2022\. The other, *It’s All Black and White*, shows a woman in a striped dress holding an axe and was registered June 24, 2019.

The complaint describes her work as a series of women “wielding the kind of powerful tools traditionally reserved for men.”

Salle’s *Hatchet* was shown in the exhibition “My Frankenstein” [at Sprüth Magers](https://web.archive.org/web/20260227133733/https:/spruethmagers.com/exhibitions/david-salle-los-angeles/) during Los Angeles art week in February 2026 and offered for sale at $138,000, the lawsuit said. The artwork in the exhibit, including Hatchet, was made with the help of a generative artificial intelligence model Salle [allegedly trained on his own body of work](https://spruethmagers.com/pdf/webpressrelease/Salle%5FSMLosAngeles%5F2026.pdf?ref=urgentmatter.press). The lawsuit makes no remarks on A.I.

The lawsuit also said the painting appeared on the gallery’s website and social media accounts and on Salle’s own website, and that Salle attended the opening.

The two images share “an identical pose, perspective, gesture, clothing, shading, lighting, dress pattern, subject matter and overall viewer impression,” the lawsuit said. It said the only substantive difference is that Salle’s figure holds an axe rather than a sledgehammer.

Media coverage of the similarities appeared soon after the exhibition was announced, and within days Sprüth Magers pulled the work from the show and its social media pages, the lawsuit said. Reemtsen sent Salle a cease-and-desist letter on March 6, and the two sides did not reach a resolution through their lawyers.

Reemtsen said the episode harmed her existing relationships with clients and pulled her focus from her own gallery show and a print line she was preparing to launch.

The lawsuit also brings a second claim for removal of copyright management information. Reemtsen said the deposit images she filed with the Copyright Office carried her name, signature and year of creation in the lower left corner, and that Salle removed that information before reproducing the work.

Reemtsen is asking for actual damages and Salle’s profits, or statutory damages, a finding that the infringement was willful, and attorneys’ fees. She has demanded a jury trial.

Court records show Salle is representing himself. He signed a waiver of service that set an August 31 deadline to answer the complaint, and a filing to extend that deadline was entered August 12\. 

He had not filed a response to the allegations by press time.

*Follow this and other cases at Urgent Matter’s* [*lawsuit tracker*](https://urgentmatter.press/tracking-art-lawsuits-legal-disputes-urgent-matter-database/?ref=urgentmatter.press)*.*