Depending on your point of view, a banana duct taped to a white wall or a highly regarded work of art sold for $6.24 million on Wednesday at a Sotheby’s auction.
The “Comedian” by Maurizio Cattelan is only a banana that has been adhered to the wall at a precise distance of 160 centimeters from the floor using a strip of silver duct tape.
When the piece first exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2019, Sotheby’s anticipated it would sell for $1.5 million.
Art critic Nancy Durrant stated in a Sotheby’s film about the artwork that Art Basel had to remove the banana from the wall because to the large crowds it attracted, which caused concern about the other featured artworks.
The “announcement as a new original work by Maurizio Cattelan that captured the world’s attention immediately,” according to David Galperin, head of contemporary art for the Americas at Sotheby’s, was the first art fair in which Cattelan had participated in fifteen years.
Someone even ate the banana that was hanging on the wall at one point.
According to Sotheby’s, the piece “belongs to the rare league of artworks that need no introduction,” and it “quickly erupted into a viral global sensation that drew record crowds, social media inundation, landed the cover of The New York Post, and divided viewers and critics alike.”
As it garnered international attention, “Comedian” has been “passionately debated, rhapsodically venerated, and hotly contested,” according to Sotheby’s, “becoming the most talked-about artwork of the century.”
Experts included in the Sotheby’s movie about the artwork claim that the unveiling of “Comedian” produced chaos and genuine chaos.
“A lot of people very angry,” Durrant added.
As news sources discussed “whether this is art, whether it is a prank, whether it is a symbol of the excess of the art market,” Lucius Elliot, head of contemporary marquee sales at Sotheby’s, stated in the film, the reaction to the banana became viral on the internet.
He continued: “In truth, it is, of course, all of those things.”
Durrant claimed that Cattelan’s use of comedy and sense of humor, which distinguish him as an artist, are evident in “Comedian.”
The artwork is intended to be humorous, according to experts, but it also highlights flaws in the art industry, such as the idea that modern art may be ridiculous.
Elliot stated, for instance, that Cattelan “is presenting a work that mocks the very notion of art having this degree of value,” adding that although it is only a banana and duct tape, “it’s value is in its conceptual heft.”
“The important thing to know about Maurizio is that his jokes are serious and his serious work is funny,” Dodie Kazanjian, an editor at Vogue, stated in clip. She continued, “There’s something very deep in what Maurizio does, so the veneer of it might look like a banana, but there s something else always at the core of what he s saying.”
Sotheby’s claims that Cattelan “single-handedly prompted the world to reconsider how we define art, and the value we seek in it.”
The day before the banana’s premiere, Emmanuel Perrotin, the founder of Perrotin, the gallery where “Comedian” was initially exhibited, claimed to have called a customer and offered them the opportunity to purchase the piece for an undisclosed sum. Three days after the customer rejected him, Perrotin received a message from someone asking to purchase “Comedian” for seven times the amount he had originally proposed.
“Imagine the change of perception created by the way it was received by the audience,” Perrotin stated.
According to Galperin, “There is no better forum to adjudicate the value of art and a single object than the platform of auction.”
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