‘Comedian’ by Maurizio Cattelan at auction

The most famous and discussed work of Maurizio Cattelan, a banana stuck to the wall with adhesive tapeit will go all’asta da Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday, November 20 with an estimate of 1-1.5 million dollars. Titled ‘Comedian’ (2019), the controversial artwork sent social media into a frenzy when it sold for $120,000 by Perrotin gallery at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019.

The installation by the Italian artist was Made in an edition of three copies. After the first two sold for $120,000 in quick succession, the Perrotin gallery and Cattellan decided to raise the price of the third to $150,000 and sell it to a museum: an anonymous donor purchased it for the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The banana displayed in Florida was purchased at a local supermarket.

“Comprised of a banana taped to a wall, the work quickly became a global viral sensation that has left a lasting impact on contemporary cultural consciousness,” Sotheby’s said in a statement. His first appearance attracted record crowds and divided viewers and critics and caused such pandemonium that it had to be removed from the premises before the end of the fair. Widely revered and hotly contested – and eaten not just once, but twice – the work has been the subject of news stories shared around the world. Having risen in an instant to the infamy of art history and universal recognition, no other work of art of the 21st century has sparked controversy, unleashed the imagination and overturned the very definition of contemporary art like Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’.” .

‘Comedian’, the auction house points out, is part of an artistic-historical heritage of conceptually bold works that have redefined what art can be: from Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’, a ready-made porcelain urinal for use, upside down, mounted on a plinth, and signed with a pseudonym in 1917; to Robert Rauschenberg’s ‘Deleted Drawing of William de Kooning’ from 1953, when one legendary artist defaced the work of another to destabilize notions of artistic originality; to Damien Hirst’s shark, covered in formaldehyde in 1991, to Banksy’s ‘Love is in the Bin’, which famously destroyed itself after being sold in the Sotheby’s auction room in 2018, thus creating a new work of art in real time. These revolutionary works were united by a spirit of iconoclastic mockery that pushed the public to question the meaning of art, starting from the very systems that allow its creation and reception. After its presentation in 2019, ‘Comedian’ placed itself firmly at the center of the cultural ‘Zeitgeist’: the ubiquitous duct-taped banana appeared on the cover of the ‘New York Post’ and became an inescapable media phenomenon.

“For me ‘Comedian’ was not a joke, but a sincere comment and a reflection on what we appreciate. In art fairs speed and business reign, so I saw it this way: if I had to be present at a fair, I could sell a banana like others sell their paintings. I could play within the system, but with my own rules,” Cattelan explained in 2019.