Maurizio Cattelan Accused Of Plagiarizing Another Artist’s Duct-Taped Banana
By Mikelle Leow, 12 Jul 2022
Conceptual work inspired by Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian. Photo 174285866 © Sergey Khramov | Dreamstime.com
The obscenely unadulterated piece of art by Maurizio Cattelan, consisting of a banana being taped to a wall, has been etched into the public’s minds ever since it emerged in 2019. The banana-forward work, entitled Comedian, was sold for US$120,000 at Art Basel Miami—a prestigious art fair frequented by humans, not Minions—and ended up being eaten by someone else. All these events helped bring the perishable art into notoriety.
Needless to say, Cattelan has reaped the fruits of his labor—but one artist, who has reason to believe he is the originator of the viral, meme-worthy artwork, hasn’t.
Joe Morford, a visual artist from California, insists that Cattelan’s Comedian is a copycat of his Banana & Orange piece from 2000. Banana & Orange also features a banana being adhered to a wall with duct tape, with the addition of an orange.
New court documents filed by Morford describe that his fruit art, created nearly 20 years before Cattelan’s Comedian was exhibited at Art Basel Miami, is registered with the US Copyright Office.
“I did this in 2000,” Morford lamented on Facebook back in 2019. “But some dude steals my junk and pimps it for $120K+ in 2019. Plagiarism much?”
"Sculptures: Still Life" Banana and Orange
Posted by Joe Morford Artist on Tuesday, July 28, 2015
To refresh your memory, here’s Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian:
Maurizio Cattelan “Comedian” sold for $120,000 in 2019 pic.twitter.com/6AJJB9n0Hw
— moonoom â§ï½¥ï¾* (@moonoom666) June 3, 2022
Cattelan’s lawyers have bitten back at Morford—who is representing himself—pointing out that elements of Banana & Orange, like the banana and tape, cannot be protected by copyright.
Nevertheless, a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida has agreed that the time is ripe to take the matter to court if Morford so wishes.
Judge Robert N. Scola, Jr has ruled that although the issue of whether a banana affixed to a wall with silver tape could be called art remains “a metaphysical question,” Morford’s artwork meets the “minimal degree of creativity” and contains enough similarities with Cattelan’s piece to raise suspicion. It is certainly “absurd and farcical” enough, says the judge, as quoted by CNN.
The judge notes that both versions depict strips of silver duct tape diagonally adhered “upward from left to right,” with the bananas “angled downward left to right.”
Cattelan’s efforts to have the case tossed by the court were denied by Scola last Wednesday.
Should Morford decide to pursue the case in court, proceedings will be held in Miami. He is seeking over US$390,000 in damages, taking into consideration how much Cattelan made from the sale of three editions of Comedian, along with legal and travel fees.
[via CNN and Bloomberg Law, images via various sources]