Duct tape + banana = art.

The question of "what is art?" has made a rare appearance in the mainstream culture recently. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan duct-taped a banana to a wall, and it sold for $120,000 at Miami's Art Basel, which set off quite a controversy around the world. People often scoff at works like this, saying, "I could have done that!" But they didn't. The artist thought of it, no one else.

Cattelan is known for work that provokes commentary and engagement. His 2011 solo exhibition featured all of his work suspended from the ceilings. In 2016, he replaced one of the toilets in a Guggenheim Museum public restroom with a fully functional 18-carat gold commode. "The Comedian," as he titled the banana, was not some off-hand prank, the work was a year in the making. Initially, the artist had planned to create a sculpture of the fruit, making models in resin, bronze and painted bronze before deciding to use an actual banana. The piece is meant as a contemplation of objects and their value in context. It is also a critique of the inequalities of the art world and capitalism, in general. It is a criticism of the art world from within it. It has meaning and a message.

Philosopher and art critic Arthur Danto declared simply that something was art when it had meaning. Kirk Varnedoe, an art historian, felt that artists were "meaning-makers, not just image-makers." Kant also believed that art consists of making meanings, that it is human nature look past just things, and seek the message in what we see. 

Art is about using line, color, shape, texture, and any other elements to communicate with the viewer. I've come to believe that this is the value of art, how it connects with the community. It might be a community of just the artist and one viewer but still a community of sorts. Art, in its ideal, is an integral part of everyday life. All art is representational on some level, it may not accurately depict a tree or flower, but more importantly, art expresses a meaning. The essence of nature, the experience of life. Dewey said that "science states meanings, art express them." 

Each brushstroke, every placement of color or line, every decision is an artist organizing these elements as well as the experiences and emotions they represent to distill feelings and ideas. This dialogue with the viewer is fundamental in nature. Art doesn't merely describe a scene; it seeks to portray an experience. Van Gogh never accurately portrayed the world around him in a literal sense, but his paintings did show the world in a way that speaks to many. It captured the truth of reality in a way that a camera never could achieve. 

This ability makes art the most universal means of communication. There's no need to translate human feelings of joy or despair portrayed by paint on canvas, chiseled from stone or welded in steel. We connect with it on a primal level. 

In the end, I think Dewey, Danto, Varnedoe, and Kant might agree that the banana was art. The banana duct-taped to a wall wasn't about the fruit as much as the meaning that the artist is communicating, and so it is art.

(Even if someone did walk up, rip it off the wall and eat the banana. But, maybe we should consider that art as well since it was a performance artist who did it?)