For $25, You Can Now Buy an Official T-Shirt Based on Maurizio Cattelan’s Famous Banana Artwork (to Benefit an Anti-Hunger Charity)

Oh, and you can also buy a lightbulb in the form of his oddly shaped head.

Maurizio Cattelan's new Comedian t-shirts. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.

If Maurizio Cattelan’s $120,000 banana was a bit outside your price range, you’re in luck: Perrotin Gallery, who represent the artist, is now releasing a limited-edition t-shirt emblazoned with an iconic image of Comedian (2019) to benefit Feeding South Florida, an anti-hunger organization serving Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

At only $25, the t-shirt really is affordable, and we’re expecting lines out the door—and an instant sellout—when they go on sale on Saturday, January 25, at 10 a.m. at Perrotin’s New York bookstore on the Lower East Side. (They’ll also be available online.)

Perhaps it’s no wonder that Cattelan is looking to shore up some good will in Miami, after janitors staged a “platanito protest” against their employers, from whom they demanded higher wages and better working conditions. Their rallying cry—”a banana is worth more than us”—harped directly on Cattelan’s work.

But charity work isn’t all the artist is up to. He has also just released a lightbulb in the shape of his own rather uniquely formed head—with his outsize schnoz, arched eyebrows, and slicked back hair—titled Yes! in a limited edition of 500 pieces. It’s a bit pricier than the t-shirt: the bulbs are available now through Marian Goodman gallery for €750 with shipping.

Maurizio Cattelan, <i>Yes!</i> (2019). Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery.

Maurizio Cattelan, Yes! (2019). Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery.

Though long revered in the highfalutin world of fine art, Cattelan managed to traverse the usual boundaries and became front-page news when Comedian (2019) was unveiled at Art Basel 2019 in Miami. The work was an international sensation (we even recorded a whole podcast episode about it).

The editioned work was offered by Perrotin gallery for a cool $120,000 and scooped up by not one, but three different buyers. Cattelan, of course, laughed all the way to the bank.


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