Comedian
2019
"Comedian" is a 2019 conceptual artwork by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan consisting of a fresh banana duct taped to a white wall, which sold at Art Basel Miami Beach for $120,000 and later resold for significantly higher prices. The work exemplifies Cattelan's provocative approach to challenging conventions of value and authenticity in the art world, prompting debates about whether the concept or the physical object constitutes the artwork. Multiple certified versions have been created and displayed in major museums, with each purchaser receiving a certificate of authenticity and instructions for installation rather than a permanent physical object.
- Location
- Sotheby's, New York, NY
- Spotted At
- Auction House · Sotheby'sView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction
November 21, 2024
Estimate: $1,000,000 to $1,500,000
Lot 10
More by Maurizio Cattelan
Artists in conversation
Martin Creed
British · b. 1968
Creed creates conceptual works using absurdly simple or everyday materials, such as his Turner Prize winning Work No. 227 where gallery lights simply turn on and off, directly paralleling Cattelan's strategy of elevating a mundane object into high art through institutional framing and certified concept.
Piero Manzoni
Italian · b. 1933
Manzoni's provocative conceptual works, most famously Artist's Shit (1961) where he sold canned excrement at the price of gold, share Comedian's core strategy of using absurd found or perishable materials to expose and mock art market valuation systems and the myth of artistic authenticity.
Damien Hirst
British · b. 1965
Hirst similarly uses provocative found or organic objects like sharks in formaldehyde to spark debate about what constitutes art and its monetary value, and shares Cattelan's mastery of generating institutional controversy and commanding extreme market prices through conceptual irreverence.
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