U.S. Supreme Court Will Decide Warhol vs Photographer Lynn Goldsmith
The landmark case will likely set the precedent for what constitutes fair usage of copyrighted materials in an artwork.
Today the Supreme Court announced that it will decide the lawsuit between The Andy Warhol Foundation and photographer Lynn Goldsmith, in which the plaintiff accused Warhol of having used her photograph of Prince for a series of paintings without permission.
Rarely has SCOTUS ever taken on art cases, making this Warhol situation all the more pressing. Whatever the decision ends up being, the implications will likely set the precedent as to what constitutes fair usage of copyrighted materials in an artwork.
Goldsmith originally licensed the image of Prince to Vanity Fair for an article back in 1981. Emblematic of Warhols pastiche, such as his depiction of Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong, the artist altered Goldsmith’s photo of Prince across a series of silkscreen paintings in 1984. When the musician passed away in 2016, Vanity Fair published an article celebrating Prince’s life and used one of the 15 images Warhol had reappropriated. As Goldsmith caught wind of the use, she filed suit against The Andy Warhol Foundation and the two sides have been in legal entanglement since.
An earlier ruling in 2019 found the Foundation not guilty, to which Judge John G. Koeltl of the Federal District Court in Manhattan said that Warhol transformed Prince “from a vulnerable, uncomfortable person to an iconic, larger-than-life figure.” However, Goldsmith appealed and legally won in 2021 where the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that her photo was the “recognizable foundation” for the paintings.
Since then, the Foundation has explored ways to bring this matter to the Supreme Court. The case is scheduled to be heard next term.
Elsewhere in art, Qatar is building three new art museums.
