Why The Banana Wall Art Sold Shouldn't Discourage Artists

In late 2019, the artist Maurizio Cattelan showed some work at an art show which ended up with a $120,000 dollar price tag on it, later to have the work eaten. That work was the banana duct taped to a wall.

The work was no other than the social media rage, known as the Banana Wall. Maurizio simple duct-taped a banana to the wall and called it art. Whether as a serious piece or mockery, pieces like this occasionally make their rounds and many often end up going home with a collector to be hung on their walls or resold.

Shortly after this piece made it’s rounds, I started seeing a meme that followed which was reshared by many discouraged artists. This meme showed an artist with a portfolio that had opened with many skilled pieces falling across the floor.

The Banana Wall Art Sold At An Art Show Shouldn’t Discourage Artists

I understand where artists are coming from after seeing the Banana Wall and especially when not looking into whether it serious or satire, however, artists should get discouraged by this art. Art is a personal journey for each person and some people will know the right person and make it big; some will make that perfect piece that gets them fame; some will make a living in commercial art; each has their own path to travel, but the biggest journey on our is traveling a path for self-discovery.

No matter how much the Banana Wall art sold for, artists need to refocus on their goals and set in motion what it will take to achieve those goals. Set your goals, write them down, and this is where the magic starts to happen. When you’re focused on yourself instead of being discouraged by some of the crazy things that happen to promote social media events, distract individuals, or whatever else happens, you continue to grow and get that euphoric feeling that happens when you sense life progression.

Where To Go From Here

What crazy things have you seen other than what this Banana Wall art sold for? What are you doing to progress your own art and refocus your goals? Let’s connect and push this further, I invite all of you to leave a comment or tag me with art you are working on in Instagram. My handle is @adammiconi and I’d love to see what you are doing to continue to progress your own art while duct-taped bananas continue to sell for enormous amounts of money.

If you are still learning and looking to progress, consider trying my Figure Drawing Fundamentals course which can help take you from a beginner to advanced artists by understanding the fundamentals, or base ideas that help you break down the art forms into their most simple structures and build them to something very complex.