Global Courant 2023-05-18 21:03:04
The court rules that Warhol should have paid the photographer a fee for using her photo of singer Prince in a project.
The United States Supreme Court has ruled against the legacy of prolific pop artist Andy Warhol because the works he created using other people’s photography were not immune from copyright claims.
Friday’s ruling upheld a lower court ruling in a lawsuit brought by celebrity photographer Lynn Goldsmith regarding a photo she took of singer Prince in 1981. Warhol had used the image in his Orange Prince series, which included 14 serigraphs and two pencil illustrations of the photo, most of which were not authorized by the photographer.
The case was closely watched in the art world and entertainment industry for its implications regarding the legal doctrine called fair use, which promotes freedom of expression by allowing the use of copyrighted works under certain circumstances. without the owner’s permission.
Courts usually determine whether a new work has a “transformative” purpose, such as parody, education, or criticism.
The SCOTUS today delivered its long overdue decision in the Warhol Foundation vs Goldsmith copyright infringement case involving Warhol’s Prince series based on Goldsmiths photographs on the boundaries of fair use and when a work is an infringement vs. a transformative use. pic.twitter.com/RlxHKn0vG1
— Michael Kasdan (@michaelkasdan) May 18, 2023
An appeals court had previously reversed a lower court ruling that Warhol’s art transformed Goldsmith’s depiction of a “vulnerable” musician into a “larger-than-life” figure.
The appeals court said Warhol’s paintings were closer to adapting Goldsmith’s photograph into a different medium than transforming it.
The ruling said that judges should not “take on the role of art critic” by considering its meaning, but should instead decide whether the new work has a different artistic purpose and character than the old one.
Andy Warhol’s 1964 Silkscreen Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is worn in Christie’s showroom in New York City (File: Ted Shaffrey/The Associated Press)
The Supreme Court’s last ruling on fair use in art was in 1994, when it said rap group 2 Live Crew’s parody of singer Roy Orbison’s song Oh, Pretty Woman made fair use of the 1960s hit.
Warhol is credited as a leading figure of the pop art movement of the 1960s, which dealt with celebrity culture views and advertising. He worked through various media.
In 2022, his screen print Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, depicting actress Marilyn Monroe, sold for $195 million, setting the record for the most expensive work by an American artist sold at auction.
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