The banana by itself is a good fruit. It provides quick energy. It is a beloved of those who like to diet. However, in the world of art, the banana has attained mythical status. The controversy around the banana as a symbol has enlivened many conversations around the world. Even more than that sculpture which is “invisible” but still occupies some real estate. The banana has outdone many other favourite fruits, including the orange, which is considered special because it rhymes with no other word. But the banana is very special. Who can ever forget cute little rhymes like Anna Banana? In fact, more people know about Anna Banana than Anna Karenina. The banana has outdone many other things as the artist’s muse.
From the top of my head, I can think of Andy Warhol’s banana. At first look, there is not much to this, arguably, poorly done banana. This banana, dressed in a thick outline, redefined popular culture, especially when it made it to the cover of a Velvet Underground album. Warhol’s banana pop seemed like the perfect symbol for punk music, which generally comprises three chords and talks about life in a way that polite folks may find unpalatable. One could safely say that the combination of the banana and the raspy, brooding vocals of Lou Reed, the frontman of The Velvet Underground, overtook the pipe that Magritte famously claimed was not a pipe. But the banana was always the banana.
Andy Warhol’s Banana and the Velvet Underground’s Banana were smash hits. It signalled the arrival of this humble fruit as a pop icon dressed in yellow (obviously). And the banana has continued to delight art lovers. A sizable section of the art world is still gushing about the new banana on the block that was taped to a gallery wall, and sold for a ridiculous number of millions at Sotheby’s. Some found it funny, some were awestruck, and those that do not care for art thought Sotheby’s was the most expensive fruit vendor in the world.
This banana, like its predecessor, became an iconic conversation enhancer. Many art writers and curators wrote long, often taxing, eulogies with words like ‘liminal’ about the brilliance of the taped banana.
My reaction to the taped banana, in the beginning, was a wry smile. I thought here comes another agent provocateur. Honestly, I thought it was a joke whose punchline would be delivered by a smart curator with a thesaurus. For the artist, it was a big win. Before he taped the banana, I had never heard of him as I had grown to be sceptical of most conceptual art out there, prowling the alleyways and white cube galleries. My cynicism is not unfounded as some of you would agree, though I found the title of the taped banana, Comedian, apt and intellectually ticklish.
So, I set out to do two things: dive into the other works of the artist Maurizio Cattelan and do a hard rewind to find out who else made bananas, specifically, in antiquity.
Cattelan, without a shred of doubt, is witty and sharp. He has, one might say, spiritualised pranking and has carried Duchamp’s torch with aplomb, in keeping with his view that originality is not so much about creating something new, but more about adding to an existing sensibility of one’s choice and temper (and digestion, I might add). For instance, his L.O.V.E. painting is a fingerless hand, barring the middle finger, in front of the Milan stock exchange. He has also “killed” the hyperreal likeness of the Pope with a meteorite and hung a dead horse. His works, primarily sculptures and taxidermy, do not fail to evoke genuine reactions, and the mischief in it even prompted a curator (whose name I can’t recall now) to call him a “smartass” as a compliment.
For some reason, the banana has interested artists through time. Probably, its phallic symbolism has helped it along. I am no psychologist, but I suspect this phallic quality has definitely affected the psyche of many creators. There are many still-life paintings where the banana has found a place of pride rather beautifully. The work of Albert Eckhout comes to mind. However, the banana still has the company of other fruits. The banana seems to have gone absolutely solo only in recent times. If the kind reader has examples of solo banana paintings or sculptures that are well-known or made by a great master, do enlighten us in the comments section. Personally, I cannot think further than Warhol.
While many have found Cattelan’s banana ridiculous and a waste of gallery and intellectual space, others have highlighted it as a centrepiece of the movement which we now call Institutional Critique, embodied by artists like Andrea Fraser, who made fun of the jargon used by the gallery world and the “troubled artist” in a performance piece where she, eventually, drops her clothes and stops at a thong and boots. (Yes, getting naked seems to be a device in many performance pieces.)
If you look at it from this vantage point, the Comedian makes sense. The art world does gush at ridiculous things, as Cattelan has proved, just as Duchamp did. This isn’t just an empty meandering of an indulgent prankster-artist.
However, for some, such indulgence is nothing more than a clever waste of time, an “emperor has no clothes” moment for the art world. It involves absolutely nothing more than a clever title and a presentation at a well-known gallery, which has the power to push poorly made art into the stratosphere. I mean, is pointing out that we are stupid with a stupid idea truly something that will age like the sculptures of, say, Rodin? That’s anybody’s guess.
In my opinion, Cattelan has better work and the banana does not make me laugh anymore. The joke is getting too old. Art is not just a matter of a smart turn of phrase or a 3-minute pop ditty. It involves intellectual, tactile and poetic work. A few millions in sales for a taped banana is likely to send a message to the world, especially to young artists, that if you have a smart idea and a relative amount of chutzpah, you don’t have to draw or chisel away on a granite. Some older artists, who have laboured on their draughtsmanship, might feel a sense of injustice at the way the art world has been hijacked by rabid intellectualism and poorly turned-out concepts.
Whatever your view or feeling might be, it is all valid. One must choose one’s poison. As for myself, I prefer to work away in my room doing whatever I am doing. While I admire Cattelan’s body of work, his ardour for the absurd and his smart, penetrative viewpoints, I like a little more poetry, a little more sense of unknowability, a little more mystery to the story.
The banana alone cannot save the world of art from itself. Simply because, once you know the twist in the tale of the Comedian, it ceases to be of prolonged interest. Like a film that can be ruined by a spoiler alert. Remember how it felt to watch that Manoj Night Shyamalan film after you knew the ghost was Bruce Willis? The banana is no different.
Now that the world’s most expensive banana has been duly eaten by its owner, a crypto king, we must rely on his digestion and move ahead. The banana has now, in all likelihood, been defecated. Even then, what a great run the banana has had, as a comedian. I cannot help but wonder what fruit or word salad might be coming next.
Image Courtesy – Artforum
Former Editor at Abir Pothi
