3 Weird And/Or Interesting Things from the Art World

One: An artist, Maurizio Cattelan, affixed a banana to a wall with duct tape at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019 and to some critics’ dismay, called it art. Now a second artist, Joe Morford, has sued, claiming copyright infringement of his similar work “Banana & Orange.” While leaving the question of what is art to others with an almost audible sigh, a court recently concluded that the two works are sufficiently similar to allow the case to go forward. Click here to see both images and decide for yourself. (FYI, the original banana at Art Basel was removed by a “hungry performance artist” and eaten.)

Two: Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is selling NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to raise money to restore two of its actual paint-on-canvas masterpieces. What’s an NFT? It’s a digital image—in this case of some early pastels by Claude Monet. Bidding starts at $314 on July 14. Funds raised from the NFT sale will go toward conserving two paintings by Edgar Degas in the museum’s collection: Edmondo and Therese Morbilli (1865) and Father Listening to Lorenzo Pagans Playing the Guitar (1869-72). Funding-raising efforts involving NFTs have been successful at the British Museum in London and at the Léopold Museum in Vienna. For more info, click here. Still not sure what an NFT is? Here is a place to answer your questions.

Three: Not weird, but interesting and closer to home. “Arts Build Community (ABC), a New Hampshire-based group of artists, creators, and community leaders, is set to host Manchester’s first community mural festival from August 11-22, 2022.

The Community Canvas Mural Program will work with three-to-seven artists to develop murals to beautify Manchester neighborhoods and empower residents. This inaugural mural festival brings up to seven local, regional, and national artists to the heart of Manchester for a 10-day festival.”

“We’re excited to celebrate Manchester’s cultural diversity, beautify the neighborhood, and uplift the voices of community members who have been underserved and marginalized,” says ABC founder and local muralist, James Chase. “This first-of-its-kind event in the Queen City is an opportunity to tell community stories through public art. The creative process can, and should, be a part of building community resilience.”

For more information, click here.

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Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.