Biden Administration Sides With Photographer in Dispute Over Andy Warhol Prince Print

In a Supreme Court filing, the Biden administration sided with a photographer who claims her intellectual property rights were violated by Andy Warhol’s eponymous foundation when it published multiple stylized prints he made based on her photo of the iconic musician Prince.

Warhol, a painter, print-maker, and multimedia artist, died in 1987 at age 58. Prince, who was born Prince Rogers Nelson, died in 2016 at 57.

Supporters of the foundation say if it loses in the Supreme Court, free expression by artists would be chilled because they would not be able to come up with new expressions based on existing works. The government counters that the high court should not create what amounts to a “celebrity-plagiarist” exception to fair use by siding with the foundation.

The case is Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. v. Goldsmith, court file 21-869. On Aug. 15, the Biden administration separately asked (pdf) the court for permission to participate in the oral argument, noting that both parties have consented to its request. The court has yet to rule on the motion.

The case goes back to 1984 when Vanity Fair magazine commissioned Warhol to create an image of Prince for an article titled “Purple Fame.” The publication licensed a black-and-white photo of Prince that celebrity photographer Lynn Goldsmith had taken. Warhol cropped the photo, resized it, and changed other details. Warhol also added other colors to it, along with shading that exaggerated Prince’s features.

“The result is a flat, impersonal, disembodied, mask-like appearance,” Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. stated in its petition (pdf) filed with the court.

Goldsmith said the original photo depicted the singer as “a really vulnerable human being,” who harbored “immense fears” about his stardom.

Warhol then created 15 more images of Prince using Goldsmith’s photo, making