Martin Eder (born 31 August 1968 in Augsburg) is a German artist.

From 1986 until 1992, he studied at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, and from 1993 until 1995 continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg, attending the University of Kassel in 1995 and 1996. From 1996 until 1999 he studied under Eberhard Bosslet at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and was a master student under Professor Bosslet from 1991 until 2001. Eder lives and works in Berlin.^[1] He plays in his own experimental rock band under the name Richard Ruin et Les Demoniaques.^[2]

Copyright law case

In 2018 Eder painted "The Unknowable" which was sold and ended up in the collection of British artist Damien Hirst^[3] soon after another artist named Daniel Conway became aware of the painting after a visit to Hirsts Newport Street Gallery in London. Conway filed a lawsuit to the effect that Eder had willfully plagiarized a part of the painting from Conways "Scorched Earth". The court case took three years to reach a verdict, until Germanys legal system decided that Eder’s painting didn’t infringe on the Conways copyright protections, legally declaring Eder’s work a pastiche that lawfully samples from the original artwork.^[3]

The painting also contains the "Monastery ruins in the snow" (1819)by Caspar David Friedrich

“I thought I had to fight this fight because it was about the freedom of art,” Eder said. “If you steal something, that is completely different. But within a collage, it gains a different meaning.”^[3]

Conway has appealed the judgement.