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In 2019, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan duct-taped a banana to a wall, titled it Comedian, and sold it for $120,000. In 2024, another version of the piece fetched $6.24 million. The absurdity wasn’t lost on anyone — but that was the point.
For decades, postmodernism has blurred the boundary between art and interpretation, between craftsmanship and disruption. It dismantled traditional ideas of meaning, intent, and skill, declaring that context — not creation — defines art.
And yet, as AI-generated art floods the digital landscape, many of the same voices that once celebrated postmodernism’s defiance are suddenly drawing lines in the sand.
We’ve accepted a banana on a wall, a urinal with a signature, and mass-produced soup cans — so why does AI work provoke such resistance? For those who subscribe to postmodernism, the question of what makes something “art” has been dismissed as obsolete for decades —but now, AI forces the art world to reconsider its own rules.
The postmodern paradox — when creation no longer matters
Consider a large black square, painted on a canvas, hung in a gallery, and titled Formless Manifesto in Black. Some will call it profound, others pretentious, but few will deny its status as “art.”
Now, imagine a person generating a similar black square on a canvas with AI. Printed, framed, and hung beside its human-made counterpart, it would likely be dismissed as gimmicky, derivative, or inauthentic.
But why?
If postmodernism has taught us anything, it’s that originality is an illusion, effort is irrelevant, and meaning is subjective. Duchamp’s Fountain wasn’t a carefully crafted sculpture — it was a urinal with a signature. Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans weren’t painted by hand with intricate detail — they were mechanical reproductions. Cattelan’s duct-taped banana to a wall wasn’t about artistic skill but about audacity and an engaged audience.
Photograph: Giuseppe Schiavinotto
If these works hold artistic legitimacy, why does AI-generated art trigger rejection? If art is defined by context and perception rather than craftsmanship, then AI should seamlessly fit in.
Some argue that AI-generated art lacks authenticity because it isn’t purely human-made. Yet, AI doesn’t create in isolation — humans provide the prompts, shaping its output.
Even so, many postmodernists contend that intentional human creation isn’t a requirement, prioritizing context, interpretation, and subjective meaning over intrinsic qualities.