The importance of still-life paintings in art history can’t be overstated. Think of Caravaggio,
Goya, Delacroix, Repin, Van Gogh, Rothko,
Picasso... They all have widely different styles, yet they all produced still lifes.
But recently, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan decided to show an actual
fruit instead of a representation of it. He duct-taped a banana on a wall.
The artwork is called Comedian and it’s exposed at Miami’s Art Basel. It’s priced at 120,000$.
Cattelan wanted to sculpt a banana and, seeking inspiration during his travels,
he’d tape the fruit on his hotel walls. He made banana sculptures in resin and bronze,
but finally settled with his original idea: a banana taped on a wall.
It isn’t the first time he gets attention for his art. His 1999 A Perfect Day consisted of his
gallerist, Massimo de Carlo, taped on a wall. You might have also heard of his 2016 America,
an 18-karat gold toilet which got stolen in 2019.
Of course, when seeing this, it’s hard to not make a parallel with Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain,
which we have made a video about. Of course, both artworks seem to, at first glance,
belong in a bathroom, but they also contribute to the discussion on the definition of art.
Comedian isn’t different in that respect. In some way, it’s even more radical because,
unlike a urinal or a golden toilet, a banana and a piece of duct-tape
are much more accessible. Anybody can tape a banana on their walls. In a way,
both Fountain and Comedian share the same purpose; to challenge our perspective of art.
Now, one of the reasons why I’m talking about Cattelan’s piece is because it’s
been brought to international fame by 45 year old artist David Datuna when he did this...
The Hungry Artist shed light on the Comedian.
Here’s where history repeats itself. The parallel between Duchamp’s 1917
Fountain and Cattelan’s Comedian can also be drawn in the interventions
performed on both artworks. Comedian got eaten and Fountain got urinated on.
Many artists have tried to use fountain as a urinal. Just to name a few,
there’s Kendell Geers, Brian Eno and chinese duo Cai Yuan and Jian Jun Xi. Cai said:
“The urinal is there – it's an invitation. As Duchamp said himself,
it's the artist's choice. He chooses what is art. We just added to it.”
You could say that the banana was there; that it was an invitation for a hungry artist.
Both Fountain and Comedian are everyday objects that have been recontextualized
to become art. The interventions made on them were a way to put the objects back in their
original context. In a way, it’s saying “this is only a banana” or “this is only a urinal”.
If showing an object and calling it art is a statement,
then acting on that said object is a dialogue.
Speaking of dialogues, last video I talked about Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait and I
absolutely loved reading your answers! Let me know in the comments what you
think of Comedian and its consumption! Do you find
it interesting? Is it just the same old dada trick performed over a century ago?
And again, we’d like to thank Isak and every other patreon for supporting us.