Maurizio Cattelan’s banana taped on a wall sold for $6.2 million and became a “masterpiece”
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The 19th-century novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford wrote this idiom in Molly Bawn, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Her assessment is as accurate now as it was then.
We all have different perspectives on what constitutes the beauty of a person, place or thing. Some views could be similar, while others could frequently clash.
Nothing proves the validity of Hungerford’s idiom more than our perceptions of art. Especially when you’re eating the art of the rich.
What on earth am I talking about? It’ll make sense shortly.
Individuals and groups look at art differently. Some people prefer the work of the Old Masters, while others favour Impressionism, Surrealism or Pop Art. Some people like oil paintings, while others enjoy watercolours. Some believe art should only include painting, etching and sculpture, while others believe that anything from photography to mixed media fits the definition quite nicely.
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Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
There have also been numerous examples of controversial pieces of art. Our country is certainly no stranger to this topic of discussion. Barnett Newman’s Voice of Fire (1967), purchased for $1.76 million by the National Gallery of Canada in 1989, ignited a firestorm of controversy around the world. As former Progressive Conservative MP Felix Holtmann once described the painting on a radio phone-in show, “It looks like two cans of paint and two rollers and about 10 minutes would do the trick.”
There’s also Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917), a porcelain urinal signed “R. Mutt” that was submitted for the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists. The original has been lost for decades, but 17 reproductions of the off-putting sculpture the artist likely made are still on display in modern museums and galleries. Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans (1962), which hangs in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, is the most well-known of his many controversial artworks. Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ (1987), a repulsive photograph of a tiny plastic crucifix submerged in his urine, was sold at Sotheby’s in London, England, for £130,000 ($234,935.35 in 2022.
Art by animals such as apes, pigs and elephants has even sold for high amounts. One notable example was in 2005, when three abstract paintings painted by the chimpanzee Congo in the 1950s sold for £14,400 ($25,301.71) at Bonhams in London, England. The initial estimate was between £600 to £800 for the entire lot.
Which brings us to Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian (2019). It’s a fresh banana taped on a wall by a piece of duct tape exactly 1.6 metres above the floor.
There are three separate editions of this conceptual art. Two of them sold for US$120,000 (over $170,000) apiece at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, with one purchased by Sarah Andelman of the now-defunct fashion retailer Colette. The remaining edition, or number two, sold for a higher sum and was gifted to New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2020. According to The Art Newspaper, it also included “a certificate of authenticity and a long list of instructions with diagrams on how it should be installed or displayed.”
What happened next caused an explosion of media coverage.
Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun paid a staggering US$6.2 million (over $8.795 million) at Sotheby’s for one edition of Comedian on Nov. 20. “This is not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community,” he wrote on X later that day. “I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history. I am honoured to be the proud owner of the banana and look forward to it sparking further inspiration and impact for art enthusiasts around the world.”
Sun also noted, “In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honouring its place in both art history and popular culture. Stay tuned!” That’s exactly what he did on Nov. 29.
Hang on. If you eat the banana art, doesn’t that mean the art is gone?
No.
“You aren’t actually buying the work itself – it’s a banana. It’s going to rot,” Elise Taylor wrote in Vogue Magazine on Dec. 10, 2019. “What are you buying, then? The certificate of art. Essentially, you bought the idea rather than the object. When the banana goes bad, the owner can replace it, according to the artist’s instructions. It will still be considered a Cattelan.”
That’s, in effect, what Sun did. He bought the certificate of authenticity, The Guardian noted on Nov. 29, and he “reportedly bought the rights to recreate the artwork by duct-taping any banana to a wall and calling it Comedian.”
This is ridiculous. Comedian fits in with the rubbish I mentioned earlier, but it’s actually worse than the others. The banana, like any piece of fresh fruit, needs to be replaced on a regular basis. The duct tape would also have to be replaced at some point. Hence, nothing about this artwork could be original for very long.
That’s not art by virtually any definition – or most perceptions, for that matter. Unless you believe that eating the art of the rich is, in fact, art. Now you see what I’m getting at.
Michael Taube is a political commentator, Troy Media syndicated columnist and former speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He holds a master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics, lending academic rigour to his political insights.
The views, opinions, and positions expressed by our columnists and contributors are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of our publication.
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