Marina Abramović, the world’s best-known performance artist, is being sued by her former collaborator and romantic partner, the German artist known as Ulay, in a dispute over works they created jointly.

Belgrade-born Abramović and Ulay, real name Frank Uwe Laysiepen, were lovers and co-creators for more than a decade before their separation in 1988, during which time they devised a series of works exploring their partnership.

Their relationship came to prominence in 2010, during an installation at MoMA in New York in which Abramović sat in a chair in a gallery for eight hours a day and invited strangers to sit opposite her and look into her eyes. When Ulay unexpectedly took a seat, she began to cry and reached across to hold his hands; the video of the encounter has been viewed by millions on YouTube.



The memory of that tender moment has now been banished, however, after Ulay launched a lawsuit, to be heard in Amsterdam later this month, in which he claims Abramović has violated a contract they signed in 1999 covering works they had created together.

Ulay claims that Abramović has asked galleries to list her as the sole author of their joint works, contrary to the terms of the contract, has failed to provide him with accurate statements of sales, and has paid him only four times in the course of 16 years.

“She is not just a former business partner,” he told the Guardian. “The whole oeuvre has made history. It’s now in school books. But she has deliberately misinterpreted things, or left my name out.”

But Abramovic’s lawyer said the artist “totally disagrees” with her former partner’s allegations. “My client doesn’t want to comment on them, they are libellous. My client considers that this lawsuit is abusive and aimed to damage her reputation in public, which is proven by his allegations to you. My client is very confident in her position in front of the court. She will defend her rights and reputation by all legal means.”

When the couple separated in 1988, they decided to mark the end of their relationship with a piece called The Lovers, in which they each walked 2,500km from either end of the Great Wall of China, before embracing and parting for the last time.

Ulay says he later sold his physical archive to Abramović, who agreed to maintain it and supervise the production of saleable materials from it, in the form of videos, photographs and performances. All profits were to be divided as follows: 50% to the gallery, 30% to Abramović and 20% to Ulay.

But his lawsuit claims that she has interpreted the contract to give him a much smaller share of royalties. In addition, Ulay alleges that Abramović prevented him from including images of their joint works in his 2014 book, Whispers: Ulay on Ulay – resulting in multiple redactions that were replaced in its pages with pale pink squares – and objected to the establishment of the Ulay Foundation, an organisation intended to manage his posthumous estate.

The case will be heard at Amsterdam district court later this month.