Richard Prince and his galleries have settled two copyright lawsuits brought by photographers over his "New Portraits" series, in which he reproduced Instagram screenshots on canvas. The settlement includes restrictions on reproducing, modifying, or selling the contested artworks, as well as financial awards to the original photographers. The lawsuits revolved around the boundaries of fair use and transformative art, with Prince arguing that his practice is protected by fair use exceptions to federal copyright protections.
Experts are still analyzing the impact of the Supreme Court's recent copyright decision involving Andy Warhol on other cases, including those involving artist Richard Prince. The Warhol decision was narrow, focusing on the use of the image rather than how much of another work an artist can copy. The court found that the Warhol portrait had been used for the same commercial purpose as the original photograph, and that conveying a new meaning or message through an artistically altered work was not justification enough for protection. The question of transformation remains central to the Richard Prince cases, which involve an installation called "New Portraits" that features Instagram photos printed on large canvases with added comments.
