the Supreme Court of the United States gives reason to the photographer Lynn Goldsmith against the Warhol foundation – Liberation

2023-05-18 18:05:55

“The work of photographers deserves to be protected by copyright, even against well-known artists”, says the Supreme Court of the United States in the case opposing Lynn Goldsmith to the Andy Warhol Foundation about the snapshot of Prince taken by one and used by the other.

The file is very followed in the world of art. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled, this Thursday, May 18, for photographer Lynn Goldsmith against the Andy Warhol Foundation. The painter had used her snapshot of the musician Prince without her receiving copyright. An anomaly according to the Court, which, by a majority of seven judges out of nine, considers that Lynn Goldsmith should have been paid because the portrait inspired by her work had a use «commercial» : it was used on the cover of a magazine.

“Goldsmith’s original work, like that of other photographers, deserves copyright protection, even from well-known artists”writes Judge Sonia Sotomayor on behalf of the majority. “These protections cover derivative works that transform the original works”, except when the former is sufficiently different from the latter, she adds. Now, in the portrait of Prince in question, “Goldsmith and the Warhol Foundation have made the same commercial use of his image”she decides.

The file at the heart of this stop has its source in 1981. Lynn Goldsmith, a photographer renowned for having immortalized many rock stars, offers the weekly Newsweek to draw the portrait of a musician who is beginning to break through: Prince. She takes several black and white shots of the young man with fine features.

In one of Vanity Fair

In 1984, the album Purple Rain propelled him to stardom. The magazine Vanity Fair wants to devote an article to him and asks Andy Warhol to paint his portrait in the style of his famous colored engravings of Marilyn Monroe or Mao. For 400 dollars, Lynn Goldsmith authorizes the magazine to use one of her photos for the exclusive use of this article. Entitled Purple Famethe text is accompanied by Prince’s face, purple skin and jet-black hair, on a bright orange background.

The story would have ended there if Andy Warhol had not declined this photo in all tones to create a series of 16 portraits of the musician, whom he admired for his talent and his androgynous style. Lynn Goldsmith discovered their existence in 2016 when Prince died, when Vanity Fair published, on the front page, an image of the «Kid de Minneapolis» taken from his photo but all orange this time. She then contacted the Andy Warhol Foundation, which has managed the artist’s collection since his death in 1987, to claim rights. She refused, opening the door to an intense legal battle which has just come to know its outcome.