The Banana in Pop Art: From Warhol to a Pink Skateboard Deck

By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Few objects have had a longer run in modern art than the banana. It is cheap, everyone knows its shape, and it is slightly funny before anyone has done anything to it. Pop artists and the artists who came after them have used exactly those qualities. This guide covers the two works that define the banana in pop art, then looks at a deck that borrows the idea for a wall at home: the Pink Banana deck, shown in the cover image held out of a taxi window on a sunny street.

The Banana in Pop Art: From Warhol to Cattelan

1967: Warhol’s peel-off banana

The most famous banana in pop art is on a record sleeve. The Velvet Underground & Nico, the debut album of the New York band with the German singer Nico, was released in March 1967 on Verve Records. Andy Warhol designed the cover and produced the album. According to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, which keeps a copy in its Archiv der Avantgarden, the white front of the gatefold sleeve carries a screen-printed sticker of a banana tilted upward, with the words “Peel Slowly and See” beside the stem and Warhol’s name along the bottom.

The sticker really did peel, and the fruit underneath was printed in pink. The National Gallery of Victoria describes a yellow and black sticker that could be removed “to reveal a pink-coloured banana underneath”, and notes that printing the stickers apparently helped delay the release. Original copies with the sticker intact are now collector’s items.

So the most famous banana in pop art was pink on the inside. That is a coincidence, not a source: the Pink Banana deck does not copy Warhol’s image, which is a single yellow banana on a white sleeve rather than a pattern of bunches. But it shows how early the wrong-coloured banana became a pop culture joke.

2019: Cattelan’s banana on the wall

Half a century later, the banana became one of the most talked-about artworks of its time. In December 2019 the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan showed Comedian at Art Basel Miami Beach: a real banana fixed to the wall with a strip of duct tape. As The Art Newspaper reported, it hung on the booth of the gallery Perrotin, sold three times, and was eventually taken down because of the crowds it drew. In September 2020 an anonymous donor gave an edition to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. What the museum received was not a banana but a certificate of authenticity and a set of installation instructions with diagrams.

Cattelan’s own explanation, quoted by the National Gallery of Victoria, gets to the heart of it: “Comedian is exactly like an apple for Cézanne: the minimum common denominator that everybody recognizes.” The same essay notes that the banana has to be replaced every seven to ten days whenever the work is shown.

Why the banana keeps coming back

Put the two works side by side and the method is the same. Both artists took the most ordinary fruit in the shop and changed one thing about it: Warhol made it a sticker you could peel, Cattelan taped it to a gallery wall. The banana does the work because everyone already knows what it is. A banana pattern on a deck changes one thing too, the colour, and relies on the same instant recognition. You do not need to know anything about 1967 or 2019 to enjoy it, but if you do, the deck has a longer story behind it than a glance suggests.

What the Deck Shows: Hot-Pink Bananas on Yellow

The design is simple, and that is the point. The ground is a warm, saturated yellow, closer to egg yolk than to lemon. On it sit bunches of bananas in a strong magenta, or hot pink, each bunch shaded so the fruit looks rounded rather than flat, with darker pink stems and tips. The bunches point in different directions and run from nose to tail, and several are cut off by the edge of the board, so the pattern seems to carry on beyond it, the way wallpaper does. There is no text, no logo and no figure.

The product page puts the idea in a few lines: the fruit is flipped from tropical yellow to pink and repeated until it is “closer to wallpaper than still life”, and the colour takes it out of nature and “into pure visual pleasure”. It also points to Warhol’s 1967 cover as part of the banana’s pop art history. To be clear, the deck is not a reproduction of any artwork and is not by or after Warhol. It belongs to the contemporary and pop art collection, a set of original designs made for the deckarts range.

Why does a banana pattern suit a skateboard deck so well? A deck is more than four times as long as it is wide, which crops most pictures badly. Pattern avoids the problem:

• The shape fits the board. A banana is long and curved, and a bunch fans out like a hand. Scattered along a narrow board, the bunches fill the space without any one of them having to be the centre.
• Nothing important gets cut off. On a portrait, the edge of a deck can crop a face. In a pattern, a bunch cut off at the nose just suggests the pattern continues.
• It reads from across the room. Two strong colours, one familiar shape: you recognise the fruit from the doorway.
• The colour swap is the idea. The bananas take the pink you would not expect, and the yellow they should have moves into the background.

The Taxi-Window Scene

The images for this deck are set on a city street on a bright, sunny day. A cream-coloured taxi with a yellow TAXI sign on the roof stands on a tree-lined street in front of tall old apartment buildings with wrought-iron balconies. In the cover image, a woman in black sunglasses sits in the driver’s seat and holds the deck out of the open window at an angle, as if showing it to someone on the pavement. Next to the pale paintwork, the yellow and pink look almost electric.

It is a playful idea rather than a practical one. The deck is made for a wall, not a car window, and the scene works because of that mismatch. Pop art likes ordinary things in unexpected places, and a taxi window is a good stage for a bunch of pink bananas.

How to Style Banana Wall Art at Home

The taxi scene puts the deck against pale surroundings: cream paintwork, stone-coloured buildings, a lot of sky. That is a good clue for interiors. The pink and yellow do the most when they are the loudest thing in view.

1. Start with a light, plain wall

White, off-white, pale grey or soft cream all work. A light wall lets the yellow read as a solid block of colour and keeps the pink clean. On a dark wall the deck becomes a sharp, high-contrast accent rather than a cheerful one. Keep a clear strip of wall on either side, and avoid hanging it right next to patterned wallpaper or a crowded shelf.

2. Choose the room for its mood

• Kitchen or dining area. A fruit motif is an obvious fit, and the deck is narrow enough for the strip of wall beside a window, a fridge or a doorway. Skateboard Wall Art for an Open-Plan Kitchen-Diner covers placement around counters and tables.
• Hallway or entryway. The pattern reads in a second as you walk past.
• A colourful, joyful room. If your home already leans towards bright colour, the deck fits the dopamine-décor idea of art that is simply fun to look at. Skateboard Wall Art for a Dopamine-Décor Home has more on balancing several bright pieces.
• A kids’ room or playroom. No text, no difficult imagery, and a fruit everyone can name.

3. Repeat one of the two colours once

A yellow cushion, a pink vase, a mustard chair, a bowl of lemons: one small object in either colour ties the deck to the room. One echo is enough. Repeat both colours everywhere and the room starts to look themed.

Decks that pair well with it

For a second or third board, look for designs that share one of the two colours or the same playful pop feel. These are all single 85 × 20 cm decks in the shop.

• Pink Leopard. Black leopard spots on hot pink. Another pattern deck in the same pink, which makes the pair look intentional. The product page links leopard print to 1950s fashion and its long life in pop culture.
• Lemon Botanical. Lemons, green leaves and white flowers on yellow. It shares the yellow and the fruit theme but comes from the tradition of botanical illustration, so one deck is a pop joke and the other a careful study.
• Iridescent Fish by Jane. A single shimmering fish on a pink deck: a familiar subject in unexpected, shifting colours.

For two decks hung as a pair, my guide to how many skateboard decks to put on one wall suggests a gap of about 10–15 cm; for a longer row of singles, about 8–12 cm. Keep the tops level.

Size, Specs and How to Hang It

The product page lists:

• Format: a single deck, one variant.
• Size: 85 × 20 cm (33.5 × 7.9 in).
• Material: Grade-A 7-ply Canadian maple, the wood used in professional skate decks.
• Print: gallery-quality UV print, no glass needed.
• Hardware: not included, sold separately in display accessories.
• Shipping: ships from Berlin, worldwide, in protective packaging.

You can compare it with other designs among the single skateboard wall art decks. Check the product page for the current price.

Hanging it

• Vertical or horizontal. The bananas point every way, so the pattern has no fixed top. Vertical suits a narrow strip beside a door or window; horizontal suits the space above a sideboard, bench or counter.
• Height: on an open wall, centre the deck about 145–150 cm from the floor. Above furniture, leave about 15–25 cm between the furniture and the deck.
• Fixings: a single deck weighs roughly 1–1.5 kg, so any fixing rated for 5 kg or more is comfortably over-specified.

Step-by-step instructions are in How to Hang Skateboard Wall Art. The wall mount is the wall option, and the floor stand works if you would rather not drill.

More on This Deck and Pop Art

For the botany behind the colour, Notes from a Sicilian Market tells the story of the real pink banana species, with the same deck shown among stalls of lemons and oranges. Sacred Heart Pop Art follows another deck from the same collection through an old hotel corridor. The contemporary and pop art guide covers the whole collection, from pattern decks to statement typography.

FAQ

Why is the banana so important in pop art?

Because it is the most ordinary fruit there is, and everyone recognises it instantly. Andy Warhol put a peel-off banana on the 1967 album The Velvet Underground & Nico, and Maurizio Cattelan taped a real banana to a wall as Comedian in 2019. Both changed one thing about an everyday object and let recognition do the rest.

Is the Pink Banana deck a Warhol design?

No. It is an original pattern design from the deckarts contemporary and pop art collection, not a reproduction of Warhol or any other artist. The product page mentions Warhol’s 1967 banana cover only as part of the motif’s history. The deck’s pattern of hot-pink banana bunches on a yellow ground is its own.

What size is the deck, and what is it made of?

It measures 85 × 20 cm (33.5 × 7.9 in) and is made of Grade-A 7-ply Canadian maple, the same wood used for professional skate decks. The design is a gallery-quality UV print, so no glass or frame is needed. The product comes in one version: this single deck.

Which room does banana wall art suit best?

Any room with a light, fairly plain wall, where the hot pink and yellow can be the brightest thing in view. Kitchens, dining areas, hallways and kids’ rooms are natural choices, and it suits a colourful home too. Avoid hanging it right next to patterned wallpaper or another very busy piece.

How do I hang it?

Hardware is not included and is sold separately: the wall mount holds it on the wall, and the floor stand needs no drilling. The pattern has no fixed top, so it works vertically or horizontally. Centre it about 145–150 cm from the floor, using fixings rated for 5 kg or more.

Can I ride it?

No. It is decorative wall art, made to hang on a wall or stand on display, and it comes without trucks or wheels. The taxi-window scene is a playful idea for the images, not a suggestion for how to use the deck. Treat it like a print or a canvas.

Does it ship outside Germany?

Yes. According to the product page, the deck ships from Berlin with worldwide delivery, packed in protective packaging. Mounting hardware is a separate item, so if you need it, add the wall mount or the floor stand to the same order.