Maurizio Cattelan's now infamous banana taped to the wall is part of the artist's decades-long critique of the art market and himself as a player within it.
Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's "Comedian", a work that offers the perfect weapon to those who think contemporary art is one big prank. EPA
Art may be long, and life short, but the existence of a hand fruit is most ephemeral of all. At this year's Art Basel Miami Beach, the art world's premier champagne-steeped swap meet, no work drew more grins, guffaws and selfies than a new sculpture by the semi-retired Italian trickster Maurizio Cattelan: a banana duct-taped to the wall, its peel already speckled with brown spots.
It's titled Comedian. By last Thursday it had already won art-world notoriety, and last weekend it achieved a public visibility that any artist would envy, after a self-promoting wag tore the banana off the wall and gobbled it up. (Not many iconic art works can also be said to be a rich source of potassium.)
