Who in their right mind would pay $6.2 million to buy a real banana duct-taped to a wall?
A cryptocurrency billionaire named Justin Sun – that’s who. Last November, Sun bought the “limited-edition rights” to the taped banana. It was one of three duct-tape-banana “artworks” created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan (I use the term “artist” and “created” loosely – very loosely.) Cattelan is often described as a prankster artist. You can say that again. Another of his “artworks” is a gold toilet.
The name of the duck-taped banana is “Comedian.’’ (haha, very funny). By buying “Comedian,” Sun now has the right to perpetuate the “artwork,” meaning he is allowed to replace the banana (and tape) as often as needed. Heckuva deal!
Oh, and by the way, two other of Cattelan’s duck-tape bananas also sold – one for $120,000, the other for $150,000. Well, compared to the $6.2 million paid for “Comedian,” at least those two prices were reasonable.
Sun bought the duck-taped banana at an auction house in New York City and then shortly after he ate the banana on a stage at a press conference. Monkey see, monkey do. Good thing he ate it soon. Before it rotted. Yes, folks, it was a real banana, the kind that rots in a week or so. After Sun ate it, he compared it to a crypto asset, adding the “real value” of the “artwork” is the “concept itself.” He then stated he would buy 100,000 bananas from the New York City street vendor from whom Maurizio bought the banana for 25 cents. That’s a lotta bananas. Let’s hope they end up in the hands of hungry people rather than rotting on walls.
When fruit vendor Shah Alam, who’d sold that banana to Maurizio, heard about how it had re-sold as an “artwork” for $6.2 million, he reportedly said this: “I am a poor man. I have never had this kind of money. I have never seen this kind of money.”
This “conceptual art,” as it’s called, harkens back to French artist Marcel Duchamp, who enjoyed making “ready-made artworks” out of found objects, in one case a urinal that he named “Fountain” in 1917. On the rim of the “fountain” Duchamp, inspired by a new comic strip called “Mutt and Jeff,” painted in black the name “R. Mutt” on the rim of the “fountain.” What a clever fellow. In Duchamp’s defense, though, he did in fact create some pioneering art.
“Comedian” also brings to mind American pop artist Andy Warhol. In 1962, he painted 32 canvases of Campbell’s soup cans, each one 20 inches x 20 inches. Then he put them together into a large rectangular work. The soup-cans canvas drew jeers and derision but also some cheers and admiration for its cheeky mordant wit. Warhol was in fact a stunningly original painter and silk-screen artist. He even did a silk-screen work (ready for this?) of a banana that was famously used as an album cover for the band “The Velvet Underground.”
One critic said this: “The banana’s potential for rot mirrors the themes of deterioration and mortality that haunt much of Warhol’s work.” Well, yeah, that makes sense, sort of – I think.
I have no doubt Maurizio had Warhol’s banana in mind when he scrounged around in his studio seeking that roll of gray-silver duct tape.
I’m going to build a little museum in my front yard. Then I will buy a case of duct tape and make occasional trips to Coborn’s Grocery. There, I will purchase fruits and vegetables to duct-tape to the walls of my museum –apples, carrots, lemons, pineapples, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, onions – anything and everything but not bananas.
Back home, I’ll duct-tape those edibles to the museum walls. I’ll sell the artworks at reasonable prices – each one between $5,000 and $10,000. On the museum’s door I’ll duct-tape a sign: “Hurry! Buy Before The Art Rots.”
Any takers?
