A banana duct-taped to a wall sold for $120,000 at Miami’s Art Basel, and I’m feeling very conflicted about it.
The fruit and tape in question was the work of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, and it literally is just a banana duct-taped to a wall, titled “The Comedian.” CBS News reports that there are actually three “editions” of the work of art, two of which have been sold. The third banana is expected to go for an even higher $150,000.
On the one hand, the hundred-thousand-dollar banana duct-taped to a wall is Good. People always like to dismiss modern art as simplistic, often remarking, “I could make that.” The go-to comeback to this statement is, “Yeah, but you didn’t.” Hate all you want, but you didn’t just make a couple hundred grand by attaching maybe a dollar’s worth of produce to the wall with three pieces of tape from a roll that couldn’t possibly have cost more than 10 bucks. Maurizio Cattelan did.
And, as a piece of art, “The Comedian” actually does have something to say. Emmanuel Perrotin—the founder of Perrotin, the gallery where the work was displayed—told CBS News that the piece is about how the meaning and importance of objects changes depending on the context.
“Whether affixed to the wall of an art fair booth or displayed on the cover of the New York Post, his work forces us to question how value is placed on material goods,” Perrotin said. “The spectacle is as much a part of the work as the banana.”
The art world can be ridiculous, and by using an object commonly associated with making clowns slip and fall, Cattelan is pretty explicitly poking fun at how arbitrary art can be sometimes. Also, the visual of a banana duct-taped to a wall is just inherently funny. I am amused by the banana duct-taped to a wall.
It also rocks that some joker spent $120,000 on a banana that will be rotten compost in like, two weeks, tops. The Miami Herald reports that Cattelan informed the buyers that they may replace the banana if they choose. This is incredible. Anybody who drops $120,000—a truly life-changing amount of money for most American families—on rotten fruit is a rich villain who deserves to be scammed.
And yet, that’s where maybe the banana duct-taped to a wall is Bad, actually. That money is going to the gallery, which is a willing participant in this whole farce. It’s going to Cattelan, who is famous for another one of his works, an 18-karat gold toilet titled “America” valued at $6 million that was recently stolen from England’s Blenheim Palace. Cattelan seems like he’s doing fine. The money is not going to any number of other worthy artists or causes. It’s not going to banana farmers or, uh, duct tape manufacturers.
Here’s the central rub with the banana duct-taped to a wall. It is both a funny critique of the absurdities of art and capitalism, yet it is inherently part of that problem, too. It’s having your cake and eating it too (although maybe “having your banana bread” would be more appropriate here). Art is valuable and artists certainly deserve to be paid for their work. Nobody gets to define what isn’t art, and “The Comedian” is absolutely art. Heck, it might even be powerful art, given how much chatter it has already inspired. “The Comedian” is just laughing along with the people it’s making fun of, and that’s a bummer.
So, is the banana duct-taped to a wall Good or Bad? I don’t know, man. It’s higher in potassium than most art, so maybe let’s just say, by that metric, it’s Good.
