This post will take a deeper dive into the artwork by Maurizio Cattelan, titled “Comedian”, that was quite literally a banana duct taped to the wall. While on display, David Datuna, created a performance piece by eating the banana and its value, titled ”Hungry Artist.” The comment received from Datuna the next day stated, “Art performance by me. I love Maurizio Cattelan artwork and I really love this installation. It’s very delicious.” Now let’s look at this from 2 vastly different, yet intrinsically related aspects that will inform the thinking behind the art.
The most obvious point of discussion is the price. There are 2 factors here. Normally, when someone spends that much money on an artwork by an esteemed artist, they need the actual artwork and authentications to retain the value. (Yes Cattelan is a professional with a long list of work) But the patron is also supporting the artist, the gallery, the Basel art fair, and the movement the artist works within. The part that is baffling so many is that art usually is made with archival and long lasting materials.
The duct tape can’t be moved from wall to wall without losing tack and the banana will spoil in days. Remember, it isn’t the first artwork made of food and wasn’t as expensive as other artworks for sale at Miami Basel. With that said, 3 of these taped bananas were sold for $120,00- $150,000. That’s north of $360,000 for half a bushel of .49c a pound bananas and a strip of tape. Good investment or what?
The second part of the discussion is the history that this artwork harps on and pulls us to ask if we really have considered everything. Here is my rationale. Anyone who has taken an art history class learned about Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” and his ready-made artworks. If you don’t, in 1917, Duchamp entered his urinal under the alias, R. Mutt. The Society of Independent Artists curated the show and removed the artwork from view during the exhibit deeming that is was a functional object with no relation to art. This was part of the American Dada movement that coincided with Europe’s Cubist and Futurist movements.
Over the following decades what counts for art takes a nose dive towards abstraction. Many say the wars inflicted the mentality of abstract art on artists who lived through the hardships. I think it only intensified the visions that their style would have been. (Not all artists from the same time period make the same styles. Just whom history chooses to record.)
So now we are here. Bananas on walls. Sure, it isn’t art. It is only a random concept attached to this banana. But look what it has done! It has sparked another grand wave of discussion in the general public and the art world. It is no where near as successful conceptually as Banksy’s automated shredding frame but it has played it’s roll culturally in pushing the creative’s view of aesthetic and concept.