Photographer Lynn Goldsmith recently won a big win before the Supreme Court, which ruled that Warhol Foundation had infringed his copyright when he allowed a Andy Warhol screen print based on his portrait of the late musician Prince for a magazine. But while Goldsmith fought this legal battle, she was also on the lookout for other derivative works and recently demanded that a Texas artist remove an Instagram post of a painting he made that was inspired by the affair.
The artist, Ryan Sandison Montgomery, produced two mixed media paintings based on Goldsmith’s photograph. In March 2022, he published one on Instagram under the title The Supreme Court as Andy Warhol as Lynn Goldsmith as Prince Not Laughingaccording to the texan outlet glass tire. The artist paints by hand images he finds online in order to counter digital media.
When Montgomery made his Prince paintings, he “had a bad feeling about the potential outcome” of the Goldsmith case, he told Artnet News. “I thought the potential new restrictions on artistic expression were a bad thing.”
What he didn’t expect was to hear Goldsmith herself.
“You didn’t ask me for permission to copy my photo and I’m ‘not laughing.’ Please don’t force me to ask Instagram to delete,” Goldsmith in a direct message on Instagram, asking him to delete the message.
When Montgomery didn’t respond, she commented on the post, reiterating her request.
“Respectfully, this is my painting,” Montgomery replied.
The photographer responded, insisting that he needed his permission to make a derivative work of his work.
Montgomery asked Goldsmith if she supports art censorship and the conservative Supreme Court majority guaranteed by Donald Trump. It was the end of the exchange, but the interaction rubbed it the wrong way.
“I was stunned that Goldsmith had an answer,” he said. “That his reaction was to claim that something I did in my home studio belonged to him was a complete surprise.”
“If she was in a David and Goliath battle with the foundation, why then ask an even lesser-known artist to post a similar image online?” Montgomery asked. “For what it’s worth, I never intended to sell these pieces and his name was always referenced in the titles of the work.”
It is unclear whether Goldsmith believes Mongomery’s work infringed his copyright.
A screenshot of Ryan Sandison Montgomery’s exchange with Lynn Goldsmith on Instagram.
“I commented out of frustration because the lawsuit the Andy Warhol Foundation filed against me was a difficult experience to go through,” she told Artnet News in an email. “At the time, I was reacting to a social media post that I thought shed some light on this experience. I took it out on Mr. Montgomery once more than a year ago; I didn’t target him.
The photographer largely won her Supreme Court case because of a license problem. The court did not address whether or not Warhol’s orange prince was a transformative use of Goldsmith’s original black and white photography. Instead, the judges focused on a narrower issue.
When Condé Nast commissioned the original illustration of Prince from Warhol in 1984, it was with a one-time use artist reference license from Goldsmith. When the company returned to the foundation to license a different work from Warhol’s Prince series in 2016, it did not credit Goldsmith or pay for it.
The 16 serigraphs and drawings from Andy Warhol’s ‘Prince Series’, based on the musician’s photograph of Lynn Goldsmith, are the subject of a copyright lawsuit in the United States Supreme Court. Courtesy of the United States Supreme Court.
orange princethe court found, had infringed Goldsmith’s copyright by becoming a market substitute for his earlier work, on which it was based.
Montgomery’s works, on the other hand, were never in danger of impacting Goldsmith’s market.
Andy Warhol’s portrait of the Prince superimposed over Lynn Goldsmith’s original photograph of the musician, as reproduced in court documents.
“My intention in using photographic references is to slow them down with paint,” Montgomery said. “I was inspired to paint the picture of Goldsmith/Warhol Prince specifically because I found the best way to voice an opinion on the case was through this practice.”
When the artist first engaged Goldsmith about his work, Montgomery was convinced fair use was on his side. Now, following Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts vs. Goldsmithit is less certain.
“In addition to a host of other issues, I’m insecure about my supposed freedom in this country,” Montgomery said. “There has been a lot of disregard for this and other landmark Supreme Court rulings recently. But if it’s not the artists who will fight back, who will?
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