Cattelan's Comedian Sells for $6.2m - But What’s the Punchline?

By Jesse Anderson

It is possible that Maurizio Cattelan’s reputation as “one of the most popular as well as controversial artists on the contemporary art scene” has been solidified by the sale of his work, Comedian, which just sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $6.2 million. It is also possible that this sale has brought to light the absurdity of the contemporary art market. Comedian consists of a banana taped to the wall with duct-tape. The buyer, crypto-currency mogul Justin Sun, will receive a banana, a roll of duct-tape, and -- most valuably -- a certificate of authenticity, signed by the artist. Ahead of The Now and Contemporary auction, which took place this November, it was estimated the work would sell for $1-1.5 million. The sale was launched at $800,000, and after several minutes of intense bidding, Sun bought it for $5.2 million, paying an additional $1 million in buyers fees.

Figure 1: Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian, banana and duct tape, 2019, photograph by John Nacion (courtesy of Getty Images, 2021).

Comedian (fig. 1) was first exhibited in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach, where it was priced at a (now) relatively measly $120,000 by the Perrotin Gallery. The work caused such a scene that it was removed early due to the uncontrollable crowds it drew. Since then, Comedian has been a hot topic of the art world. Cattelan has stated that work is not intended as a joke, despite its objective humorous absurdity, instead, the work intends to question “the very notion of the value of art” according to David Galperin, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art in the Americas. Emmanuel Perrotin, Cattelan’s French art dealer, has stated that Comedian “has already shaped our era and will continue to inspire debate and reflection for many years to come, which is the hallmark of every significant artistic endeavour.” It would seem that Cattelan’s controversial work is marketed as bold and potentially era-defining. Though, Cattelan does not necessarily seem to propose a novel concept. Matthew Slotover, co-founder of Frieze, has situated Cattelan’s work within the conceptual canon spearheaded by icons like Marcel Duchamp and Carl Andre, describing the work as a ‘provocation’: “it’s an absurd thing to [do] and absurd that people would pay money for it, but that is very much a part of the work.”

Indisputably, Comedian is a provocative work, sparking discussion and debate; challenging viewers to question where we find value in art. However, is controversy and provocation enough to make a conceptual artwork effective? Justin Sun’s statement following his purchase, described Comedian as “not just an artwork […] it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community.” It is Sun’s present plan to eat the banana to honour its position in “both art history and popular culture.” Having founded the cryptocurrency platform, Tron, Sun is clearly no stranger to working in the conceptual realm. His purchase of the artwork, and promise to digest the $5.2 million banana, certainly contributes to the legacy of the work - but from the pedestrian view, distant from the mega-wealth of Sotheby’s evening auctions, the multi-million-dollar sale of Comedian looks like a gross joke, despite this not being Cattelan’s artistic intention. Far from being a “sincere commentary on what we value,” which was the artist’s intention for work when exhibited at Art Basel, the sale of Comedian seems to conceptually collapse in upon itself. Cattelan describes the work as expressive of his ability to “play within the system,” using his own rules. This seems a fair statement to make given that the centrepiece of the work apparently cost thirty-five cents at an Upper East Side fruit stall, but it is difficult to care about ‘playing the system’ when the system in question, the ‘art world’, is made an absurd space.

Figure 2: Comdeian at the Now and Contemporary Art Auction, Sotheby’s 2024. (Photograph courtesy of Artnet).

 This is not to say that Conceptual art is not valuable: it is. The Fountain (1917) was groundbreaking, exciting, novel; but also highly controversial in its own time – Duchamp having anonymously exhibited the piece under the alias, R. Mutt. Conceptual art did not, and has not, become ineffective. From Jenny Holzer to Cildo Meireles, Conceptual art can be political, it can be provocative, and it can be divisive. Comedian simply falls short when compared to these Conceptual giants. Slovtover’s citation of Duchamp is wishful at best, embarrassing at its worst. If the concept behind Comedian has already been proposed, then where is its value? Is it not a reiteration of something already said, using a different object? The recycling of the concept aside, we can understand that Sun has paid $6.2 million for authenticity. Anybody could tape a banana to a wall, but only Sun can do so and claim Cattelan as the artist. This is a concept we are all familiar with, especially after the NFT (non-fungible token) phase. However, now might be the time to mention that Sun is not the only owner of Comedian, which has three editions in total. One is owned by fashion designer Sara Andelman, the other was purchased by William and Beatrie Cox, who subsequently donated it to Solomon R Guggenheim, New York. Sun might have a certificate of authenticity, but he is not the only one.

Even if the concept is not necessarily new, and the work is not one of a kind, Sun believes that Comedian will “inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.” Maybe, the real value of Comedian is in its contribution to art historical discourse. Could it be that Sun’s sacrifice of $6.2 million was in fact for the greater good of the art world, and art history at large? Rest assured, it was a relatively small sacrifice on behalf of Sun, who paid $78 million for a Giacometti sculpture back in 2021. If you have $6.2 million to spend on a banana, why not? Relative to the history of art market sales, $6.2 million does not top the charts. What is most frustrating about the sale of the banana is the pseudointellectualism which appears to surround its discourse, which appears disconnected even from the artist himself.

Comedian, 2019, has been “derided as both a consequence of art-market excess and lauded as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of its own absurdity.” It has been praised as a Conceptual piece in line with Duchamp; it has been noted as pushing the boundaries of art; and as challenging the value which we place on art. However, it’s hard to believe that these grand accreditations were Cattelan’s intentions. According to Cattelan, “if [he] had to be at the fair, [he] could sell a banana like other people sell their paintings.” Comedian thus is rebellious and hilariously childlike. It is the pseudo-intellectualism, hyper-meta discourse surrounding Comedian that detracts from its innocence as a silly artwork intended to poke fun at art fairs. It is this same hyperintellectualism which attempts to rationalise the ludicrously high price of the work, which was bought, at least in part, for its ‘meme’-ability.

Bibliography:

“High Roller Pays $6.2 Million for Cattelan’s Low-Hanging Fruit at Auction”. News Desk. Artforum. November 21, 2024. Accessed November 25, 2024. https://www.artforum.com/news/high-roller-pays-6-2-million-for-cattelans-low-hanging-fruit-auction-1234722098/

“Maurizio Cattelan’s Duct-Taped Banana Expected to Fetch $1 Million at Auction”. News Desk. Artforum. October 25, 2024. Accessed November 25, 2024. https://www.artforum.com/news/maurizio-cattelans-duct-taped-banana-expected-fetch-1-million-at-auction-1234720987/

“Maurizio Cattelan”. Perrotin. Accessed November 25, 2024. https://www.perrotin.com/artists/Maurizio_Cattelan/2

“’The World’s Most Expensive Banana’: Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian”. The Art Newspaper. Accessed November 25, 2024. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/11/21/maurizio-cattelan-banana-sothebys-6-million-auction-comedian

Tim Jonze. “$5.2m for a duct-taped banana: has the buyer of Maurizio Cattelan’s Artwork Slipped UP?”. The Guardian. November 21, 2024. Accessed November 25, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/nov/21/maurizio-cattelans-duct-taped-banana-artwork-fetches-us52m-at-new-york-auction