Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” that duct-taped banana is up for sale. What would you buy with a spare $1-1.5 million? Would you buy a banana and some duct tape? Maybe you would if you wanted to own a bit of art history.
The most influential and radical artworks of the last century have had the power to fundamentally shift perceptions around the nature of art itself. In this spirit, Comedian is a defiant work of pure genius. Balancing profound critical thought and subversive wit, this is a defining work for the artist and for our generation. With a single brilliant gesture, Cattelan rocked the foundations of the art world, and brought art to the center of mainstream popular culture. If at its core, Comedian questions the very notion of the value of art, then putting the work at auction this November will be the ultimate realization of its essential conceptual idea – the public will finally have a say in deciding its true value. Whatever your take on it, you won’t want to miss the sensation of the season.
David Galperin, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Art, Americas
In December 2019, Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian captivated the world in its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach. Comprised of a banana fastened with duct tape to a wall, the artwork quickly erupted into a viral global sensation that left a lasting impact on the contemporary cultural consciousness. Its initial appearance drew record crowds, divided viewers and critics alike, and caused such pandemonium that it had to be removed from the premises before the end of the fair. Widely venerated, and hotly contested – and eaten not only once, but twice – the work headlined news stories shared around the world.
Skyrocketing to art historical infamy and universal recognition in an instant, no other artwork from the twenty-first century has provoked controversy, sparked imagination, and upended the very definition of contemporary art like Cattelan’s Comedian.
Estimated at $1-1.5 million, Sotheby’s will offer Comedian at auction for the first time as a highlight of The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction this November in New York. The work will take to the global stage, kicking off with a one-day exhibition this Monday, 28th October in New York, followed by a world tour including London, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, Dubai, Taipei, Tokyo, and Los Angeles, before returning to New York for exhibition ahead of the auction on 20th November.
Comedian sits within an art historical legacy of conceptually audacious masterworks that redefined what art could be: from Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, a readymade porcelain urinal turned over, mounted on a pedestal, and signed with a pseudonym in 1917; to Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning Drawing of 1953, when one legendary artist defaced the work of another to destabilize notions of artistic originality; to Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde-pickled shark in 1991; through to Banksy’s Love is in the Bin, which famously shredded after being sold in Sotheby’s salesroom in 2018, and thus created a new artwork in real-time. These revolutionary works shared in a spirit of iconoclastic pranksterism that provoked audiences to question the meaning of art, from within the very systems that enable their creation and reception. Reflecting on the conceptual underpinnings of Comedian, in an interview with The Art Newspaper, Cattelan said:
To me, Comedian was not a joke; it was a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value. At art fairs, speed and business reign, so I saw it like this: if I had to be at a fair, I could sell a banana like others sell their paintings. I could play within the system, but with my rules.
Cattelan exploits the ideal of the heroic artist, interrogating viewer’s beliefs about art with deadpan honesty.
Following its unveiling in 2019, Comedian landed firmly at the center of the cultural zeitgeist – the ubiquitous tape-strapped banana featured on the cover of The New York Post and became an inescapable media phenomenon. Conceived in an edition of three plus two artist proofs, one example is held in the collection of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Travelling Exhibition Dates
New York 28th October, London 29th October, Paris 30th October, Milan 31st October, Hong Kong 1st November Dubai 4th November Taipei 5th November Tokyo 6th November Los Angeles 7th November
New York 8th — 20th November
About the artist
Maurizio Cattelan is among Contemporary Art’s most brilliant provocateurs. He has persistently disrupted the art world’s status quo in meaningful, irreverent, and often controversial ways. Cattelan’s post-Duchampian penchant for the absurd is apparent in his critiques of social and cultural norms, executed through a wide variety of media from sculpture and taxidermy to performance and curatorial endeavors.
Describing his work, curator Nancy Spector has written:
“It is aspirational yet ironic; comical yet critical; and elusive yet instantly accessible, given its pop sensibility. Like a seasoned outlaw, Cattelan navigates a fine line between what is socially and culturally acceptable and what is not.”
Cattelan has exhibited widely throughout his career, including solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1998), Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2000), Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (2003), Musée du Louvre in Paris (2004) and the Menil Collection in Houston (2010). In 2011, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York mounted a major retrospective of his work, titled All. Cattelan has also participated in numerous contemporary art fairs including the Venice Bienniale (1993, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2011) and Whitney Biennial (2004). The artist’s auction record was set in 2016 when Him sold for $17.2 million.
