Don't leave us hanging

A self-shredding canvas, invisible sculptures, fresh bananas, porcelain commodes – art has often broken its own rules. These 10 artists are trolling us, we suspect

- Sulogna Mehta [e-mail]

1 Congo, the chimp who painted.

Congo lived a short life (1954-1964) but he was painting by age four and completed some 400 abstract-impressionist works in his lifetime.

His fans included Pablo Picasso and the Duke of Edinburgh. He had a curator too – artist-zoologist Desmond Morris. Like human artists, his works went up in value after his death. In 2019, 55 works went on auction, some commanding £6,000.

2 Jeff Koons's steel rabbit.

When a 41-inch stainless-steel, balloon-animal-shaped bunny gets auctioned for $91 million, it marks a moment when art exists to make headlines. The hype is part of the work. US pop artist Jeff Koons knows this well. His sculpture from his Rabbit series (1986) was auctioned in 2019 at a record-breaking price for a work by a living artist. That's all it is, a big steel bunny. Make of that what you will.