On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court will hear a case involving pop culture and art regarding whether a photographer should be paid for using a photo of Prince in an Andy Warhol piece.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts v. Goldsmith lawsuit may have significant repercussions for the art world and US copyright law.
It originates from a black-and-white shot of Minneapolis-born Prince taken in 1981 by renowned celebrity photographer Lynn Goldsmith.
When Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ record was becoming popular in 1984, Vanity Fair commissioned Warhol to create a graphic to go with a feature on the musician in the glitzy publication.
Warhol used one of Goldsmith’s photographs to produce a silk screen print image of Prince with a purple face in the familiar brightly colored style the artist made famous with his portraits of Marilyn Monroe.
Goldsmith received $400 for the one-time use of the rights and was given credit as the photographer.
The Andy Warhol Foundation, established following the artist’s passing in 1987, granted Vanity Fair publisher Conde Nast a permission to use another image of the musician created by Warhol from the Goldsmith photograph when Prince passed away in 2016.
That portrait, Warhol had actually made 16 in total featured Prince with an orange face rather than a purple face.
The Foundation received a licencing fee of $10,250 from Conde Nast.
Goldsmith asserts that her copyright on the original photograph was violated despite the fact that she received nothing.
‘This time, no credit or payment to Goldsmith,’ her lawyers said in a brief. ‘Copyright law cannot possibly prescribe one rule for purple silkscreens and another for orange ones.’
After hearing oral arguments on Wednesday, the nine judges on the Supreme Court will decide whether Warhol’s work is transformative, and deserving of protection, or infringing.
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