Artist Lina Iris Viktor Accuses ‘Black Panther’ Team Of Stealing Her Work For ‘All The Stars’ Video

The Black Panther team has been accused of using artist Lina Iris Viktor’s work in the music video for “All of the Stars” by Kendrick Lamar (featuring SZA) without Viktor’s permission.

The New York Times reported that Viktor was contacted by the movie team twice — once in November 2016 and once in December 2017 — to see if the film could feature her “Constellations I” pieces, and she declined after hearing the conditions she would have to agree to. She had also been trying to enter her work into the Armory Show for that March.

“We walked away,” Viktor told the Times. “That’s the last I heard.”

Viktor’s work features a black surface with bold gold geometric shapes, and it resembles the background of the “All The Stars” video at the three-minute mark.

In a letter to Lamar’s label head, Anthony Tiffith, Viktor’s lawyer, Christopher Robinson, said that at minimum, Viktor wanted a public apology and a licensing fee for the unauthorized use of her art.

“Cultural appropriation is something that continually happens to African-American artists,” Viktor told the Times. “And I want to make a stand.”