The halls of the Miami Convention Center are certainly crowded during Art Basel, but only one booth, and artwork, drew crowds that could be compared to those around the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. And it was hardly a priceless masterpiece by the world's most famous Renaissance genius...
Maurizio Cattelan, the contemporary Italian sculptor and installation artist, already made headlines earlier in September when America, an 18k gold toilet worth US$6 million (£4.55 mil), which he first designed in 2016 for the Guggenheim Museum, was stolen from its exhibit at Blenheim Palace.
But his latest artwork at Miami's Art Basel certainly eclipsed any previous press coverage and was by far the most viewed and photographed artwork at one of the world's biggest and most prestigious fairs. Comedian, which Cattelan made in an edition of three, consists of a simple banana that he purchased at a Miami grocery store for less than a dollar, a piece of scotch tape and a certificate of authenticity.
As images of the taped banana permeated social media feeds and news articles, one knew what to expect, but as I approached the small mob wielding cell phones and snapping quick selfies in front of Galerie Perrotin's booth, the spectacle became all the more... comic.
This was Friday, the third day of the fair, so the yellow banana had become speckled with brown spots and though firmly affixed to the wall, appeared as if it would have become soft and squishy to the touch. With the quick rotation of people taking photos, it was hard to edge oneself to the front, but I was able to take the below image, which, with the shadow of the iPhone, captures the social media frenzy that really held propel the icon status of the banana.
And despite its lack of traditional artistic skill, Comedian does spark a conversation about the relationship between art and money. As Emmanuel Perrotin told Artnet, “A work like that, if you don’t sell the work, it’s not a work of art.”
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Fortunately, the perishable banana can always be replaced, but as I learned, the certificate of authenticity is really what the new owners have acquired.
"Certificates of authenticity are crucial in conceptual art," said Galerie Perrotin. "Comedian has a COA that contains exact instructions for installation and authenticates that the work is by Maurizio Cattelan. Without a COA, a piece of conceptual artwork is nothing more than its material representation." So while the bananas can be replaced, the buyer is really purchasing the concept in the form of the COA.
Each of the three bananas sold in the US$120,000-150,000 (£91,000-113,000) range with one going to Beatrice and Billy Cox, the Miami art collectors, and another to Sarah Andelman, the owner of the now-closed Colette concept store in Paris. The third buyer, who is French, has remained anonymous.
As for the concept behind the banana, Cattelan told Artnet, "In the end, one day I woke up and I said ‘the banana is supposed to be a banana." Gallery owner, Emmanuel Perrotin, expounded upon Cattelan's statement to CNN, saying that the banana was "a symbol of global trade, a double entendre, as well as a classic device for humor."
Comedian made even bigger headlines when New York performance artist David Datuna removed and ate the one of the bananas in a performance art work he titled Hungry Artist on Saturday 7 December. Following this, the gallery did not show Comedian on 8 December, the last day of Art Basel, but does not plan to press charges against Datuna.
"We are acutely aware of the blatant absurdity of the fact that Comedian is an otherwise inexpensive and perishable piece of produce and a couple of inches of duct tape," Billy and Beatrice Cox told Page Six. "When we saw the public debate [the Maurizio Cattelan piece] sparked about art and our society, we decided to purchase it. We knew we were taking a risk, but ultimately we sense that Cattelan’s banana will become an iconic historical object."
The future home of the fruit may be in a museum, it would seem. Andelman echoed the Coxes' statement, telling the Art Newspaper, "I don’t think I’ll show it all the time, but I might frame the certificate. And of course I’ll be more than happy to 'lend' it to museums."
As the Duchampian-style work incited fair mayhem, the fact that a simple banana taped to the wall stole the show over hundreds of thousands of works of art by the world's most famed artists speaks to the increasing power of conceptual art.
