A PROFILE
Title: “Comedian”
Artist: Maurizio Cattelan
Photo: Nadia Bouzid
Date: Friday, December 6th, 2019
Location: Miami Beach Convention Center
The banana was purchased at a local supermarket. Displayed with basic duct tape to one of the walls of Gallerie Perrotin’s booth.
One of the buyers of Maurizio Cattelan’s banana was Sarah Andelman, cofounder of Colette. That is a useful detail in a story largely reduced to the spectacle of someone paying $120,000 for supermarket produce.
At the Paris store, Andelman had made a profession of selecting things and deciding what belonged beside what. Fashion, photography, books, design, and less expensive objects shared the same address. The selection was what made Colette worth visiting. Her purchase of Comedian deserves to be considered with that history in mind.
According to Emmanuel Perrotin, Andelman bought edition number one. She told The Art Newspaper that it was intended for the office of her company, Just an Idea. She might not display it continuously, she said, but might frame the certificate.
The certificate is rather important here. Comedian consists of a banana attached to a wall with duct tape, but the fruit can be replaced. The work comes with authentication and instructions for installation. The buyer acquires an authorized edition by Cattelan, rather than an obligation to preserve a particular banana.
WALKING BY | Photo: Nadia Bouzid
Andelman’s comment suggests she understood that distinction perfectly well. It also makes the purchase more interesting than the familiar story of a wealthy person being persuaded to pay an extraordinary amount for an ordinary object. She was buying a work whose identity could survive the disappearance of what everyone had come to photograph.
Perrotin, meanwhile, hardly needed discovering. Emmanuel Perrotin opened his first gallery in 1990, and by this year the business had spaces in Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo. Comedian brought an established gallery to the attention of people who might never otherwise have encountered its program.
Cattelan was hardly an unknown artist testing whether anyone would notice him, either. His previous work includes America, the functioning gold toilet first exhibited at the Guggenheim in 2016. The banana arrived with an artist, a dealer, and an audience already familiar with the possibility that something apparently ridiculous might be worth taking seriously.
At Art Basel Miami Beach, the work was offered in an edition of three, with two artist’s proofs. Two editions were reported sold at $120,000 each during the opening preview. Anyone could obtain the materials. Obtaining an authenticated Cattelan was a different transaction.
The price did much of the work in carrying that distinction outside the fair. A photograph of a banana on a wall is an oddity. Attach a six figure sale to it and it becomes something people can argue about immediately, without knowing the artist’s history or having visited the booth.
On Saturday, December 7, David Datuna removed the banana and ate it, calling his performance Hungry Artist. The gallery replaced the fruit. The incident gave the story another audience while demonstrating how little the survival of that particular banana mattered to the work.
By Sunday, the crowds had become a practical problem. Perrotin removed the installation, citing crowd movements and risks to neighboring artworks. The banana could be replaced easily enough. Accommodating everyone who wanted to see it proved more difficult.
I think the response is part of what makes Comedian effective. Admiration, irritation, photographs, and jokes all helped it circulate. Disliking the work did not prevent someone from enlarging its audience. The price made an especially efficient caption.
None of that establishes that $120,000 was a sound investment, or that public attention will last. Andelman’s involvement is a reason to examine the purchase more carefully, rather than a reason to accept the price without question. A reputation for judgment does not make every acquisition beyond criticism.
But her remark about framing the certificate brings the discussion back to what was actually sold. The price remains open to argument. The idea that everyone involved had mistaken supermarket produce for a rare object does not survive the details of the transaction.
FULL FRONTAL
Title: “Comedian”
Artist: Maurizio Cattelan
Photo: Nadia Bouzid
Date: Friday, December 6th, 2019
Location: Miami Beach Convention Center
The bananas come with a certificate of authenticity that contains exact instructions for installation.
A CLOSE LOOK AT THE BROWN SPOTS
Title: “Comedian”
Artist: Maurizio Cattelan
Photo: Nadia Bouzid
Date: Friday, December 6th, 2019
Location: Miami Beach Convention Center
FROM AFAR
Title: “Comedian”
Artist: Maurizio Cattelan
Photo: Nadia Bouzid
Date: Friday, December 6th, 2019
Location: Miami Beach Convention Center
Selfies at Maurizio Cattelan’s Banana. Titled “Comedian”. Displayed and sold for $120,000 USD by Gallerie Perrotin at the 2019 Art Basel show in Miami Beach.
Miami Beach Convention Center | Photo: Nadia Bouzid
Miami Beach Convention Center | Photo: Nadia Bouzid