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The Art Assignment
The $150,000 Banana
The $150,000 Banana
The Art Assignment
·
12:43 · Jan 3, 2020
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now
I'm
sure
you've
already
heard
about
the
banana
duct-taped
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now I'm sure you've already heard about the banana duct-taped
0:02
to a wall at an Art Fair in Miami and about
0:05
the person who ate the banana and
0:07
the multitudes who've created their own gestures
0:09
in response you might already have a firm opinion about it all too but
0:14
I'd like to ask you to clear away for a moment what you know
0:17
or think you know about this thing that's happened and consider
0:20
it with me anew what
0:22
do we think of this a hundred and fifty thousand dollar banana
0:26
let's get the facts in front of us and yes there are still facts
0:31
this real banana attached
0:32
to the wall with a length of standard-issue
0:34
silver duct tape is titled comedian
0:37
and it is the brainchild of Italian
0:39
artist Maurizio Cattelan it
0:41
was presented at his galleries booth at the 2019
0:44
edition of Art Basel Miami
0:46
Beach an Art Fair that's been held annually in Miami since 2002
0:50
galleries from around the world applied
0:52
to have the privilege of paying for space to display their wares within
0:56
the Miami Beach Convention Center
0:58
then for a handful
1:00
of days in early December
1:02
a bunch of mostly
1:03
affluent people descend on the fair and the many other shows
1:07
events and parties that have sprung up around it collectors
1:10
come to buy art of course but anyone who can afford a ticket starting
1:14
at $50 can come to just look at a ton of art and witness
1:18
the fair as a fascinating
1:19
sociological phenomenon this is all to say that comedian
1:23
was just one very small work of art in booth
1:26
d24 in a loud and crowded Convention
1:29
Center filled with thousands
1:30
of works of art many
1:31
of them rather huge
1:33
but it didn't take long after
1:34
the doors opened for the banana to attract attention and
1:37
also buyers gallery paratah
1:39
was offering three editions
1:41
of the work for a hundred and twenty thousand dollars each
1:44
two of those sold very quickly and then the dealer raised the price to
1:48
a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the third which
1:51
also sold there were an additional
1:53
two artists proofs of comedian
1:55
that were both sold to museums
1:57
by the end of the fair now
1:58
artist proofs are generally
2:00
the small number of prints in a limited edition
2:02
that an artist hangs on to for their own collection
2:05
or to hold back and sell later on to someone important
2:08
they're often regarded as special
2:10
and can sell for more than the original
2:13
even though yes they are technically
2:15
the exact same and this is very funny in the case of comedian
2:19
because it's a conceptual artwork
2:20
the buyers did not purchase actual
2:23
bananas and duct tape they
2:25
paid a hundred and twenty or a hundred and fifty thousand
2:28
dollars for an idea all
2:29
they're getting is a certificate
2:31
of authenticity that proves
2:33
it's a verified artwork by Maurizio
2:35
and instructions for how to install it can
2:38
anyone who wants to buy a banana from the grocery store and tape it
2:42
to the wall in the exact same way yes
2:44
but only people with the certificate are technically
2:47
owners of comedian which
2:49
they can replenish as often as needed with a fresh banana and duct tape
2:52
the museums that own the certificate
2:54
are the only ones who can rightfully
2:56
display a banana duct-taped
2:58
to a wall this way and put a label next to it with Catalans
3:01
name on it I'm guessing they'll have the right to loan out the certificate
3:05
to other institutions too
3:06
who will likely be clamoring to get in on a piece of the banana
3:10
action this may sound absurd but there are many examples of
3:14
this kind of thing in the history of conceptual
3:16
art it's what allows museums
3:18
and individuals to own an exhibit wall drawings
3:21
by Sol LeWitt who
3:22
issued certificates of authenticity with
3:24
each work along with detailed
3:26
diagrams and instructions for
3:28
how they should be installed you
3:29
didn't need the wit to paint the walls himself
3:32
when he was alive or even
3:33
now that he's not if you
3:35
move or want to show the wall drawing somewhere else you
3:38
have to paint over or destroy the old wall drawing and have it remade
3:42
in the new location
3:43
according to specification but
3:45
you've got to have the certificate
3:47
this is what is simultaneously
3:49
so maddening and hilarious
3:51
about Catalans banana he
3:53
has selected one of the most common
3:55
and easily accessible of
3:56
objects and through will and clout and roguish
3:59
ingenuity has transformed nothing into
4:02
something of value all
4:04
artists perform a type of alchemy when they turn humble materials
4:07
into items people will pay money for but
4:10
comedian sets this reality into
4:12
high relief especially with its strategic placement
4:15
in the context of acini Art Fair calling
4:18
out the absurdly inflated
4:20
art market and then Aeros sliver of the privileged
4:23
population that participates in it but
4:25
it's not actually nothing that the buyers of comedian
4:28
received with their purchase they
4:30
now own a valuable
4:31
artwork by Maurizio Cattelan the
4:33
same Catalan who's been long pulling
4:35
art pranks and exhibiting
4:37
and respected museums and galleries around
4:39
the world he made a solid-gold
4:41
fully functional toilet titled
4:43
America in 2016 that for
4:45
a time was available for use in a bathroom at the Guggenheim in New
4:49
York that is until it was stolen went
4:51
on loan for an exhibition in England
4:53
but for Catalan nothing
4:55
is sacred when viewed in the context of his sculpture of Pope John Paul
4:59
the second being struck by a meteorite or his
5:02
miniature figure of Hitler kneeling
5:04
and repentance the banana is pretty inoffensive subject
5:07
matter even with it's obvious phallic illusions
5:10
but comedian is firmly in the Catalan tradition of
5:13
exploiting and exposing the things we love and hate
5:16
and hold dear it pokes fun at our desire for art
5:19
to be unique original
5:21
or something we couldn't do ourselves
5:23
and for art buyers and sellers it laughs at their susceptibility to
5:27
hype name recognition and
5:29
the perception of scarcity Catalan
5:31
has a track record for involving
5:33
his galleries and his exploits - in
5:35
1995 he designed a costume for his dealer emmanuel
5:39
pirata to wear throughout the run of the show and
5:42
in 1999 he duct-taped
5:44
gallerist massimo DeCarlo to the wall for the entire two-hour opening
5:48
so the duct tape is an art world in joke and also
5:51
something that ties comedian
5:53
clearly to Catalans wider body of work oh and the guy really likes to
5:57
hang things by the way for
5:59
his 2011 retrospective at the Guggenheim Catalan
6:01
suspended all of his works from the ceiling of the Rotunda
6:05
instead of putting them on the walls like usual
6:07
comedian also has plenty of ties to art history for those who care about
6:11
that sort of thing Marcel
6:12
Duchamp was the famed progenitor of the ready-made
6:15
credited as the first to put a non art object
6:18
into a gallery and call it art and Catalans
6:21
banana is certainly part of that tradition
6:23
and very many artists
6:25
have put bananas and images
6:27
of bananas to use like
6:28
Andy Warhol did in 1967
6:31
for his Velvet Underground
6:32
& Nico album complete
6:34
with peel sticker the banana has appeared frequently
6:37
and works often grouped under the banner of feminist
6:40
art like Natalia LLS
6:42
1970s consumer art series an art historian Lyndon
6:45
Auckland's 1972 play on a nineteenth-century image
6:49
of a woman with a tray of apples the
6:51
guerrilla girls have put the banana to good use in some of their 1980s
6:55
protest posters and plenty
6:56
of other artists have - all of these things may
6:59
or may not have been on Catalans
7:01
mind when selecting a banana for this work but
7:03
it doesn't matter there
7:05
are all things that make comedian
7:07
a potentially good investment
7:08
and the ultimate catalan for a collector to own they
7:12
can of course show it off at dinner parties or
7:14
just enjoy the fun of watching it rot and having to always make sure
7:17
to have bananas on hand they can also lend it out to museums
7:21
for shows or sell it if they want to probably
7:24
making a considerable profit that
7:26
is until the art bubble bursts but for the museum's who've purchased it good
7:29
god they're gonna be mobbed who
7:31
wouldn't want to come take a selfie
7:33
with the famous banana
7:34
although museums are likely going to confront the same challenges
7:38
that the gallery did at the fair lines
7:40
formed quickly of people wanting to see and take selfies with comedian but
7:44
and things went relatively smoothly until
7:46
one fairgoer artist david de tuna decided
7:49
to remove the banana from the wall and eat it explaining
7:53
that he was performing his own work titled hungry artists while
7:56
it did get a lot of media coverage
7:58
it didn't mean much to the art itself the
8:00
gallery had another banana and
8:02
comedian was back in no time because de tuna didn't eat the artwork to
8:07
do that he would have had to have eaten the certificate
8:09
of authenticity which is actually a performance
8:12
I'd like to see but
8:13
the gallery did decide to take the work down before the end of the
8:16
fair because of the crowds and risk to the safety of other artwork
8:20
and people in the vicinity and
8:22
let's talk about the gallery for a minute because they do play an interesting
8:25
role in this their
8:27
Instagram posts explained comedian
8:29
as related to Catalans
8:30
past work offering a wry
8:32
commentary on society power
8:34
and authority and insight
8:36
into how we assign worth and what kind of objects
8:39
we value which is all fine and good and you can accept that or
8:43
not but the good stuff comes with
8:45
their post about taking
8:46
the work down they
8:47
say median with its simple composition
8:50
ultimately offered a complex
8:52
reflection of ourselves we
8:55
would like to warmly
8:56
thank all those who participated in
8:58
this memorable adventure as well as to our colleagues we
9:01
sincerely apologize to all the visitors of the fair who today will not be
9:06
able to participate in comedian
9:08
yes that's right participate
9:10
in because the artwork isn't just the banana and neither is it the certificate
9:15
of authenticity really it's
9:17
all of us it's
9:18
those who flocked to see it our response
9:20
to it our memes
9:22
the press this video as Teddy
9:24
L Wong astutely commented
9:26
to our community post about it I think
9:28
the outrage is the art and the outrage around the art of course makes
9:32
it more valuable because
9:34
it makes it more famous
9:35
which is these days a proxy
9:37
for value hungry artists may have been intended
9:40
as a critique but
9:41
in the short run all it's done is bolster
9:43
the value of comedian
9:44
several of you asked me to not make a video about this and I
9:48
get it us talking
9:50
about it gives this work its power and it implicates
9:53
us as players in its scheme for
9:55
everyone who loves art or spends a lot of time trying
9:58
to make or support truly earnest creative endeavors both
10:02
comedian and D tunas banana-eating
10:04
are big Downers that
10:06
the only art that filters
10:07
out into wider discussion is
10:09
multi-million dollar auction sales or this does
10:12
devalue the good work that many are trying to do and it adds fuel
10:16
to the arty raging fires of those who hate modern art or think
10:21
anything art related is a con game some
10:23
of it is a con
10:24
game but not all of it but
10:26
whether or not you like comedian
10:28
or think it's constructive
10:29
it does reflect life today one
10:32
of the great things art can do is point to what makes the now
10:36
moment distinct from all the other moments and life
10:39
for many of us is confounding
10:41
an absurd and inflated
10:43
and outrageous and by outrageous I
10:46
mean filled with outrage at something new and different every week and
10:50
it's rarely about the real outrage like
10:52
the root causes behind
10:54
the polarization of wealth but about bananas
10:57
this pool of images
10:59
were swimming in and
11:00
instant Mema fication of everything has
11:02
left us even more unsure than
11:04
we've ever been of what art is supposed to be and do it shouldn't
11:08
shock us that a mere idea can be worth a hundred and fifty thousand
11:11
dollars what after all is intellectual
11:14
property what is influence
11:16
and views and likes but
11:18
social capital that's been turned into capital
11:21
capital nothing is sacred everything
11:24
is a commodity and we're
11:25
not sure whether to laugh or cry
11:28
my problem with comedian
11:29
is not that it's conceptual
11:30
it's that it comments
11:32
about our superficiality in a superficial
11:34
way it demonstrates what is deeply wrong with contemporary
11:39
discourse but without much depth which
11:42
is to say it might not be the art we want but
11:45
I fear it's the art we deserve
11:47
do you love binging
11:49
PBS shows well the PBS video app is your home for amazing
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educational shows ranging from science films from Nova to concerts
11:58
on Austin City Limits to
11:59
documentaries from Ken Burns and
12:02
all with no ads or algorithms
12:04
oh and the art assignment we're
12:07
there too if you live in the u.s.
12:08
check out the link in our description to
12:10
start watching anytime on nearly any device thanks
12:14
to all of our patrons
12:15
for supporting the art assignment especially
12:17
our grand masters of the Arts Tyler
12:20
Calvert Thompson David golden and Ernest Wolfe
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