Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous art piece “Comedian,” which consists of a banana duct-taped to a wall, recently sold for $6 million at an auction. It was a highly controversial outcome, considering that part of the art community doesn’t consider it to be art and believes it is a mockery.
Artist Alireza Karimi Moghaddam recently gave his take on the controversy surrounding “Comedian” with a powerful illustration. His work shows famous artist Vincent Van Gogh trying to sell some of his most famous paintings by duct-taping a banana over them.
The illustration likely alludes to the fact that Van Gogh managed to sell just a few of his paintings during his lifetime and died in poverty, while ephemeral pieces like “Comedian” are now selling for crazy amounts of money.
Moghaddam also attached a fictional letter Van Gogh “wrote” to his brother Theo. In the latter, the famous painter informs Theo that he finally managed to sell a significant number of his paintings while admitting he “strayed a bit from my ideals and beliefs about art.”
“But what can one do? The restaurant near my house doesn’t care about my beliefs; it only wants money to provide me with food!,” the fictional letter adds.
