Richard Prince Is Once Again Being Sued for Appropriation
This time it’s over his use of images of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious.
Artist Richard Prince is in hot water once again for copyright infringement. This time around, the artist and his patron, gallerist Larry Gagosian, are being dragged into court for using one of photographer Dennis Morris’ shots of late Sex Pistols guitarist Sid Vicious without the source photographer’s consent.
This is far from the first time that Prince and Gagosian have found themselves in court on these kinds of charges: the artist has been ‘rephotographing’ old Marlboro Man advertisements since 1980; he has been known to hand out copies of Catcher in the Rye with his own name printed on the cover; most recently, Gagosian hosted an exhibition of portraits, all of which Prince sourced from Instagram, without the original posters’ permission.
Morris’s charges are straightforward enough: Prince is accused of “making derivative works” and “producing and distributing large scale reproductions incorporating those derivative works.” Since appropriation, derivation and plagiarism are central to Prince’s oeuvre, it appears unlikely that the artist would refrain from this kind of behavior in the future.
Luckily, Gagosian can foot the bill.
