Author Topic: The $120,000 Banana  (Read 3277 times)

OtherJen

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5267
  • Location: Metro Detroit
The $120,000 Banana
« on: December 08, 2019, 07:49:37 AM »
I don’t understand why this is art (although I appreciate the performance artist in this article for highlighting the ridiculousness): Someone ate the $120,000 banana at Art Basel. Some quick thinking saved the day


bacchi

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7056
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2019, 10:29:56 AM »
It's amusing to read about the seriousness of the gallery viewers.

Quote
“But you’re not supposed to touch the art!”

Lol

maizefolk

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7400
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2019, 11:02:24 AM »
I think the art is in being the first to figure out you can tape a banana to a wall and sell it for $120,000 because it will make the news and people will talk about it.

The second person to have the same idea gets nothing (nor the first person if they haven't built up the proper credentials or reputation or press contacts to put it off).

I can appreciate that on some level, even if I cannot wrap my head around who would pay $120,000 to get your name in the paper as the person who bought a banana taped to the wall (or more accurately, a license to tape new bananas to the wall in the future and call it somebody else's work of art).

lost_in_the_endless_aisle

  • Guest
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2019, 12:51:57 PM »
Also of possible interest: a while ago, Brian Eno carried out a moderately elaborate scheme to piss into Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain"

partgypsy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5207
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2019, 11:22:40 AM »
I actually appreciate the absurdity/meta aspect of the art on one level. I think it's great that someone actually ate the banana! And apparently the certificate of the art states that the banana can be "replaced"...
All I know myself even though I enjoy the joke I'd rather spend 120K on other things, maybe website names etc.

OK fellow mustachians if you had 120K and you had to spend it, spend it on something tangible AND something considered either art or collectible in some form, what would you buy (we will exclude gold bullion, stocks and real estate from this). There are some forms of art such as golden and silver age comics that have done quite well in appreciating in value. 

TheGrimSqueaker

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2606
  • Location: A desert wasteland, where none but the weird survive
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2019, 12:08:36 PM »
I actually appreciate the absurdity/meta aspect of the art on one level. I think it's great that someone actually ate the banana! And apparently the certificate of the art states that the banana can be "replaced"...
All I know myself even though I enjoy the joke I'd rather spend 120K on other things, maybe website names etc.

OK fellow mustachians if you had 120K and you had to spend it, spend it on something tangible AND something considered either art or collectible in some form, what would you buy (we will exclude gold bullion, stocks and real estate from this). There are some forms of art such as golden and silver age comics that have done quite well in appreciating in value.

That price point is well below what would be necessary to get conventional art guaranteed to appreciate in price (a Vermeer with impeccable provenance, for example). I might use a bit of a shotgun approach by buying things I like and want to display, originals, from up-and-coming artists who tend to do well on Reddit and other online communities. When the artist is living, I have a personal rule of buying only directly from them or from their authorized agents such that they get a commission.

MilesTeg

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1363
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2019, 03:43:47 PM »
The vast majority of art is construced with a few bucks of material. It's not the material of the art that makes it valuable.

moof

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 809
  • Location: Beaver Town Orygun
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2019, 04:18:23 PM »
The vast majority of art is construced with a few bucks of material. It's not the material of the art that makes it valuable.
So it was the subtly of the way the tape was torn and arranged on the wall?

TheGrimSqueaker

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2606
  • Location: A desert wasteland, where none but the weird survive
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #8 on: December 09, 2019, 09:18:30 PM »
The vast majority of art is construced with a few bucks of material. It's not the material of the art that makes it valuable.
So it was the subtly of the way the tape was torn and arranged on the wall?
In fairness, when I first read the title of the thread I thought it was about a gigolo. Maybe I'm not far wrong.

Freedomin5

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6485
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2019, 02:25:20 AM »
As everyone knows, the banana is the idea.

I couldn’t understand at least 80% of the article. I could read the words, but the way the words were strung together made no sense. I guess this is why I’m not an artist.

KodeBlue

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 212
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2019, 08:18:23 AM »
Of course in my day someone would have tried to smoke the banana peel.

partgypsy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5207
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #11 on: December 11, 2019, 03:32:52 PM »
Sometimes a banana, is not just a banana.

OtherJen

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5267
  • Location: Metro Detroit
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #12 on: December 11, 2019, 06:30:18 PM »
Not to be outdone, my hometown presents Shawarma on wall

LonerMatt

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1642
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2019, 08:36:56 PM »
The banana isn't art.

The action and presentation are the art. The banana is the prop that enables the art.

This sort of punkish prank art always grabs headlines but it's always exactly as lazy as it sounds.

As an artist I think it's a bit funny in the moment, but ultimately like an entitled playboy writing about how bad the prestige of an ivy league is smacks of an insider who has benefited from what they are critiquing making further gains from the system their limp statement attacks.

Njdealguy

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 22
Re: The $120,000 Banana
« Reply #14 on: December 12, 2019, 09:28:15 AM »
I'm disappointed the banana was eaten, wanted to wait and see the $120k art after the banana started rotting/decomposing with nice stink bombs around!