Maurizio Cattelan Is Selling T-Shirts Based on His Famous Banana Artwork to Benefit an Anti-Hunger Charity

If Maurizio Cattelan’s $120,000 banana was a bit outside your price
range, you’re in luck: 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 €500 (€750 with shipping).

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.

The post Maurizio Cattelan Is Selling T-Shirts Based on His
Famous Banana Artwork to Benefit an Anti-Hunger Charity
appeared first on artnet News.