Elizabeth Peyton, along with David Zwirner Gallery and Sotheby's, now faces a copyright lawsuit over a painting that portrays Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher.
The suit, filed August 20 in the Southern District of New York, was brought by Welsh music photographer Justin Thomas. The complaint, filed by Thomas's attorney Terry Parker, identifies Peyton's 1996 work, "Earl's Court (Liam + Noel)," as a "slavish copy" of a 1995 photograph Thomas took of the siblings. Court documents were first reported by the legal blog Copyright Lately and reviewed by Hyperallergic.
According to the filing, Peyton's canvas reproduces a zoomed-in section of Thomas's photograph, a rare moment in which the feuding brothers embrace. The photographer's image is widely recognised from the 1990s British pop wave and appears as a black-and-white print on the cover of Thomas's 2024 photography book, How Does It Feel? - Oasis 1995/2002.
The complaint frames the dispute around the legal standard for transformation under copyright law, arguing the painting did not alter the original enough to qualify. The filing states, "The only transformation is the medium itself, and Peyton’s slight cropping of the Copyrighted Work and adding different coloring and brush work." It adds that Peyton included details not in the photograph, citing a blue flower-patterned sleeve in the painting.
The suit names the gallery and auction house alongside Peyton, placing commercial intermediaries at the center of the claim. Thomas's complaint seeks relief through the federal court process by asserting his exclusive rights over the 1995 image.
The case is pending in the Southern District of New York, where resolution will turn on whether the court finds Peyton's treatment of the photograph legally transformative.
