US artist targeted in copyright claim
Artist Richard Prince has been named in a copyright infringement claim by a fine art photographer.
Fine art photographer Eric McNatt filed the claim (pdf) against Richard Prince, art gallery Blum & Poe and art marketplace Ocula, at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, on November 16.
In the suit, McNatt claimed that Prince had infringed the copyright of his photograph, called “Kim Gordon 1”.
The photograph is a black and white portrait of the lead singer of alternative rock band Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon, at her home in Massachusetts.
McNatt’s photograph was published in September 2014 in fashion magazine Paper’s thirtieth anniversary edition.
The photograph also featured on the magazine’s Instagram account and was licensed by McNatt to the magazine.
McNatt has also published the photograph on his website, in order to “solicit” business opportunities.
Prince, according to the suit, “created and displayed” the infringing photograph on his Instagram account in September 2014.
The post “consisted of an exact reproduction of the copyrighted photograph, the only modification being minor cropping of the bottom and top portions”, said the suit.
The suit argued that Prince is an “’appropriation artist’ notorious for incorporating the works of others into artworks for which he claims sole authorship”.
It said that the artist “wilfully and knowingly” and without “seeking or receiving permission” from McNatt “copied and reproduced” the photograph.
McNatt claimed that Prince “printed a physical copy” of the photograph and displayed it at Blum & Poe around April or May last year.
The work was displayed as part of an exhibition called “New Portraits”.
Ocula published a copy of the infringing portrait on its website, ocula.com, and offered it for sale.
In January this year, WIPR reported that Prince had been named in a copyright infringement lawsuit by photographer Donald Graham, who said that Prince had used one of his photos called Rastafarian Smoking a Joint”, which was used in one of his exhibitions last year.
McNatt is asking for declaratory relief, permanent injunctive relief, statutory damages and attorneys’ fees.
