美国国家公共电台 NPR Opinion: This Art Is Bananas

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

What makes a banana taped to a wall worth $120,000 to someone? If it's been put there by the right artist. This banana was duct-taped to a wall by Maurizio Cattelan, the Italian artist, and it's on display this week at Art Basel in Miami Beach. The banana is real, by the way, not a sculpture. It will soon go brown, slimy and may already be fragrant¹. The Perrotin art gallery of Paris has already sold this piece of produce. And it turns out that $120,000 is practically a bargain. Another banana the artist taped to a wall has already sold for $150,000.

The artwork is titled "Comedian²." Emmanuel Perrotin, the art gallery's owner, told CNN that bananas are a symbol of global trade, a double entendre, as well as a classic device for humor. Though slipping on a $120,000 banana peel doesn't sound all that amusing. Maurizio Cattelan is a kind of art satirist³. He makes artworks, not arguments. As he mused⁴ in a rare phone interview with The Washington Post a couple of years ago, what's the point of our life? Everything seems absurd until we die, and then it makes sense. One of his sculptures, "The Ninth Hour," shows Pope John Paul II holding onto his pastoral staff, being struck by a meteor. His best known work is probably an 18-karat gold working toilet, valued at more than a million dollars, called "America," which, yes, is supposed to be a contemporary political comment. It was stolen this fall from Blenheim Palace.

This work may remind banana-art appreciators of Andy Warhol, who composed a gently browning banana for the cover of the 1967 album "The Velvet⁵ Underground & Nico." Fans could pull back a banana-skin sticker to reveal a fleshy fruit below, which was famously suggestive for the times. I doubt Paul Cezanne earned anything near the 19th-century equivalent of $120,000 for his masterful 1895 painting "The Basket of Apples," where he turned spilled fruit into a picture of life's bounty⁶.

But I don't want to sound like some finicky curmudgeon⁷ who thinks there hasn't been a truly great artist since Rockwell. A banana duct-taped to a wall may not be everyone's idea of art, craft or inspiration. But there is something absurd and maybe delightfully⁸ so about a banana on a wall, now turning brown, making people stop, stare, smell and wonder about the fragile passage of time. What makes anything worthwhile is the use, joy or simple giggles⁹ that it gives us.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS")

LOUIS PRIMA: (Singing) Oh, yes. We have no bananas. We have no bananas today. We've got string beans and onions and big, juicy lemons and all kinds of fruit. And say, we've got an old fashioned tomato, a long Island potato. Oh, yes. We have no bananas. We have no bananas today. There's a fruit man on our street whose name is Mr. Pete. And he keeps...

1 fragrant   

adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的

参考例句：

• The Fragrant Hills are exceptionally beautiful in late autumn.深秋的香山格外美丽。
• The air was fragrant with lavender.空气中弥漫薰衣草香。

2 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

3 satirist   

n.讽刺诗作者，讽刺家，爱挖苦别人的人

参考例句：

• Voltaire was a famous French satirist.伏尔泰是法国一位著名的讽刺作家。
• Perhaps the first to chronicle this dream was the Greek satirist Lucian.也许第一个记述这一梦想的要算是希腊的讽刺作家露西安了。

4 mused   

v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事）

参考例句：

• \"I wonder if I shall ever see them again, \"he mused. “我不知道是否还可以再见到他们，”他沉思自问。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• \"Where are we going from here?\" mused one of Rutherford's guests. 卢瑟福的一位客人忍不住说道：‘我们这是在干什么？” 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

5 velvet   

n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的

参考例句：

• This material feels like velvet.这料子摸起来像丝绒。
• The new settlers wore the finest silk and velvet clothing.新来的移民穿着最华丽的丝绸和天鹅绒衣服。

6 bounty   

n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与

参考例句：

• He is famous for his bounty to the poor.他因对穷人慷慨相助而出名。
• We received a bounty from the government.我们收到政府给予的一笔补助金。

7 curmudgeon   

n. 脾气暴躁之人，守财奴，吝啬鬼

参考例句：

• The old curmudgeon found a new scapegoat and that let me out.那个老守财奴找到一个新的替罪羊，这样我就脱身了。
• The old curmudgeon was talking about the smothering effects of parental duty on creative lives.那些坏脾气的老人们喋喋不休于父母生儿育女之责任的妨碍性效应。

8 delightfully   

大喜，欣然

参考例句：

• The room is delightfully appointed. 这房子的设备令人舒适愉快。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The evening is delightfully cool. 晚间凉爽宜人。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 giggles   

n.咯咯的笑( giggle的名词复数 )；傻笑；玩笑；the giggles 止不住的格格笑v.咯咯地笑( giggle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Her nervous giggles annoyed me. 她神经质的傻笑把我惹火了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I had to rush to the loo to avoid an attack of hysterical giggles. 我不得不冲向卫生间，以免遭到别人的疯狂嘲笑。 来自辞典例句