Hot artist Derek Fordjour — whose work is collected by Jay Z, Beyoncé, and Drake — has fired back at a lawsuit filed against him by his former gallery.
We exclusively reported last month that Robert Blumenthal Gallery filed a $1.45 million suit against Fordjour, alleging the gallery discovered Fordjour as a grad student and contracted with him in 2014 to deliver 20 artworks for a $20,000 advance.
The gallery alleged in court documents that Fordjour — whose work now sells for as much as $250,000 and shows at the Whitney — breached the contract by only turning over 13 of the works.
But now Fordjour has filed a motion saying the “frivolous” suit should be tossed, and he wants all his art back — plus the proceeds.
“Success often breeds resentment, and there is usually someone who believes they have received less credit than they deserve. In this case, that someone is Robert Blumenthal,” the motion in NY Supreme Court alleges. “But he does not want the limited credit as one of Fordjour’s early art dealers and fiduciaries…Instead, he wants to rob Fordjour of nearly two dozen works of art — claiming that he is the sole owner of those works, which he now wants to sell for his own personal profit.”
Fordjour’s lawyer, Maaren Shah commented, “It is a classic example of an art dealer acting in bad faith to exploit an artist at the outset of his career.” Blumenthal’s lawyer, Mark Seidenfeld said, “The motion is a piece of creative writing…Fordjour never treated the agreement like anything but a sale agreement because the consignment theory is phony.”