Maurizio Cattelan
Encyclopedia
Maurizio Cattelan is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
) is an Italian artist based in New York. He is known for his satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s, particularly La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), depicting the Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
struck down by a meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
.
Early life
Cattelan started his career in ForlìForlì
Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...
(Italy) making wooden furniture in the eighties where he came to know some designers like Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and designer of the late 20th century. His body of designs included furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting and office machine design.-Early career:...
.
He made a catalogue of his work which he sent to galleries. This promotion gave him an opening in design and contemporary art. He created a sculpture of an ostrich
Ostrich
The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...
with its head buried in the ground, wore a costume of a figurine with a giant head of Picasso, and affixed a Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
ese gallerist to a wall with tape. During this period, he also created the Oblomov Foundation. In 2009, he teamed up with Italian photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari to create an editorial for W Magazine's Art Issue. Subsequently, both started the magazine "Toilet Paper" http://toiletpapermagazine.com/, a bi-annual, picture-based publication.
Artistic style
Cattelan’s personal art practice has led to him gaining a reputation as an art scene’s joker. In 1995 he began his line of taxidermied horses, donkeys, mice and dogs; in 1999 he started making life-size wax effigies of various people, including himself. One of his best known sculptures, ‘La Nona Ora’ consists of an effigy of Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
in full ceremonial dress being crushed by a meteor and is a good example of his typically humorous approach to work.
Another of Cattelan’s quirks is his use of a ‘stand-in’ in media interviews equipped with a stock of evasive answers and non-sensical explanations.
Between 2005 and 2010 his work has largely centered on publishing and curating. Earlier projects in these fields have included the founding of “The Wrong Gallery”, a store window in New York Cityhttp://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1671867,00.html, in 2002 and its subsequent display within the collection of the Tate Modern from 2005 to 2007; collaborations on the publications Permanent Food, 1996– 2007, and the slightly satirical arts journal "Charley", 2002–present (the former an occasional journal comprising a pastiche of pages torn from other magazines, the latter a series on contemporary artists); and the curating of the Caribbean Biennial in 1999. Along with long-term collaborators Ali Subotnick and Massimiliano Gioni, Cattelan also curated the 2006 Berlin Biennale http://www.berlinbiennale.de/eng/. He frequently submitted articles to international publications such as Flash Art http://www.flashartonline.com/.
Cattelan’s art makes fun of various systems of order – be it social niceties or his regular digs at the art world – and he often utilises themes and motifs from art of the past and other cultural sectors in order to get his point across. Cattelan saw no reason why contemporary art should be excluded from the critical spotlight it shines on other areas of life and his work seeks to highlight the incongruous nature of the world and our interventions within it no matter where they may lie. His work was often based on simple puns or subverts clichéd situations by, for example, substituting animals for people in sculptural tableaux. Frequently morbidly fascinating, Cattelan’s dark humour sets his work above the simple pleasures of well-made visual one-liners.
He has been described by Jonathan P. Binstock, curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
"as one of the great post-Duchampian artists and a smartass, too".
Works
- http://whitehouse.splinder.com/post/20824673/000 Images about the "strange" similarity between the puppets representation of himself and Massimo Tartaglia ( Silvio Berlusconi attacker in December 2009).
- One of his most famous artworks is a sculpture of Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul IIBlessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
hit by a meteorite, titled La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), made in 1999. It was exhibited at the Royal AcademyRoyal AcademyThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in London as part of the prestigious ApocalypseApocalypseAn Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
show, and was sold at Christie'sChristie'sChristie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
for $3 million. - Working Is a Bad Job (1993): At the 1993 Venice Biennale he lease his allotted space to an advertising agency, which installed a billboard promoting a new perfume.
- Another Fucking Readymade (1996): For an exhibition at the de Appel Arts Center in Amsterdam, he stole the entire contents of another artist’s show from a nearby gallery with the idea of passing it off as his own work, until the police insisted he return the loot on threat of arrest.
- For Errotin, le vrai Lapin (1995), he persuaded his gallerist Emmanuel PerrotinEmmanuel PerrotinEmmanuel Perrotin , is a French art dealer specialized in modern art. He owns the chain of art galleries, with two in Paris and one in Miami.-Life and career:...
to wear a giant pink rabbit costume shaped like a phallus to Cattelan's gallery opening - turisti (Tourists) (1997), taxidermied pigeons and fake pigeon shit exhibited in the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of 1997
- In 1997, at the Consortium in Dijon, Cattelan dug a coffin-shaped hole in the floor of the museum's main gallery to acknowledge his own frailty in the face of having to mount a museum show.
- Untitled, 2001 (2001), installation created for the Museum Boijmans Van BeuningenMuseum Boijmans Van BeuningenThe Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans . Much of the museum's original collection was destroyed in a disastrous 1864 fire...
in Rotterdam that depicts the artist peering mischievously from a hole in the floor at a gallery of 17th-century Dutch masters. - As part of the 2001 Venice BiennaleVenice BiennaleThe Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
, he erected a full sized HOLLYWOOD signHollywood SignThe Hollywood Sign is a landmark and American cultural icon in the Hollywood Hills area of Mount Lee, Santa Monica Mountains, in Los Angeles, California. The sign spells out the name of the area in and white letters. It was created as an advertisement in 1923, but garnered increasing recognition...
over the largest rubbish tip on PalermoPalermoPalermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, SicilySicilySicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. - L.O.V.E (2011), a 36-foot white marble sculpture middle finger sticking straight up from an otherwise fingerless hand, pointing away from Milan's stock market
- Turisti, his new work for the 2011 Venice Biennale made up of 2,000 embalmed pigeons.
Exhibitions
Cattelan's work has been on view in numerous solo exhibitions, at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; Artpace, San Antonio, Texas; Centre Georges PompidouCentre Georges Pompidou
Centre Georges Pompidou is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais...
, Paris; the Kunsthalle Basel
Kunsthalle Basel
Since opening in 1872, Kunsthalle Basel has examined various positions concerning contemporary art. This renowned exhibition space in the Swiss city of Basel has a very long tradition of supporting avant-garde artists and expanding the accepted boundaries of contemporary art. Contemporary art...
, Basel; Project 65 at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, New York; as well as at Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Le Consortium, Dijon; and Wiener Secession
Secession hall (Austria)
The Secession building is an exhibition hall built in 1897 by Joseph Maria Olbrich as an architectural manifesto for the Vienna Secession, located in Vienna, Austria...
, Vienna. A major retrospective, assembling 130 objects of Cattelan's career since 1989, opened in 2011 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
, New York. Cattelan has also exhibited at Skulptur Projekte Münster
Skulptur Projekte Münster
Skulptur Projekte Münster is an exhibition of sculptures in public places in the town of Münster...
(1997), the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
, London (1999), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near Walt Disney Concert Hall...
(2003) and the Museum Ludwig
Museum Ludwig
Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from PopArt, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein....
, Cologne (2003), and participated in the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
(1993, 1997, 1999, and 2002), Manifesta
Manifesta
Manifesta, the , is a European pan-regional contemporary cultural biennale, described in 2010 by the as "stunning in its scope and uncompromisingly experimental in its approach".-Manifesta History:...
2 (1998), Luxembourg, Melbourne International Biennial 1999
Melbourne International Biennial 1999
Melbourne International Biennial 1999"Signs of Life" 14 May - 27 June 1999The Melbourne International Biennial was a cultural initiative of the City of Melbourne in partnership with Arts Victoria, Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of...
, and the 2004 Whitney Biennial
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
http://www.whitney.org/www/2006biennial/index.php in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. In 2004, Cattelan exhibited the controversial sculpture Untitled featuring 3 hanging kids for the Nicola Trussardi Foundation
Nicola Trussardi Foundation
The Nicola Trussardi Foundation is a non-profit institution for the promotion of contemporary art and culture. Created in 1996, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation is neither a museum nor a collection...
.
He is represented by Emmanuel Perrotin
Emmanuel Perrotin
Emmanuel Perrotin , is a French art dealer specialized in modern art. He owns the chain of art galleries, with two in Paris and one in Miami.-Life and career:...
http://www.galerieperrotin.com/ in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Massimo de Carlo http://www.massimodecarlo.it/ in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and Marian Goodman Gallery in New York http://www.mariangoodman.com/.
Prizes
Cattelan was a finalist for the Guggenheim's Hugo Boss PrizeHugo Boss Prize
The Hugo Boss Prize is awarded every other year to an artist working in any medium, anywhere in the world. Since its establishment in 1996, it has distinguished itself from other art awards because it has no restrictions on nationality or age...
in 2000, received an honorary degree in Sociology from the University of Trento
University of Trento
The University of Trento is an Italian university located in the cities of Trento and Rovereto. It has been able to achieve considerable results in didactics, research and international relations, as shown by Censis University Guide and by the Italian Ministry of...
, Italy, in 2004, and was also awarded the Arnold-Bode prize from the Kunstverein Kassel, Germany, that same year. A career prize (a gold medal) was awarded to Maurizio Cattelan by the 15th Rome Quadriennale
15th Rome Quadriennale
The 15th Rome Quadriennale or XV Rome Quadriennale is an Italian art exhibition held between 19 June and 14 September 2008 at its historical site, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni of Rome, Italy.The exhibition has no thematic restrictions and originates with the aim of...
.
On 24 March 2009, at the MAXXI Museum of Rome, the singer Elio
Elio
Stefano Belisari , best known as Elio, is an Italian singer and musician, the founder of the Italian rock band Elio e le Storie Tese. He performs as the lead vocalist and plays the transverse flute , and sometimes the electric guitar and the electric bass...
of the Elio e le Storie Tese
Elio e le Storie Tese
Elio e le Storie Tese , often abbreviated EelST, is an Italian band from Milan, formed in 1980, whose music is clearly inspired to the style of Frank Zappa, both in music and lyrics...
, who announced that he was the real Cattelan, came to receive the prize, making witty remarks and answering questions from the public.
Art market
In 2004, one of Cattelan's best-known older pieces, a suspended, taxidermised horse titled The Ballad of Trotsky, was sold to Bernard ArnaultBernard Arnault
Bernard Arnault is a French business magnate who is best known as the chairman and CEO of the French conglomerate LVMH. According to Forbes Magazine, Arnault is the world's 4th and Europe's richest person, with a 2011 net worth of US$41 billion.-Education and business career:Arnault was born...
in New York for $2.1m (£1.15m). Par Peur de l'Amour, a sculpture of an elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
in a Ku Klux Klan uniform
Ku Klux Klan regalia and insignia
The costume of the Ku Klux Klan is perhaps the most distinctive feature of that organization, and is recognized worldwide. It is sometimes known as the 'Glory Suit' by those who wear it, and many pejoratives by the Klan's numerous opponents.-Development:...
, sold at Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
in 2004 for $2.7 million.
External links
- Cattelan at Emmanuel Perrotin
- Images about the similarity between the puppets representation of himself and Massimo Tartaglia ( Silvio Berlusconi attacker in December 2009).
- Maurizio Cattelan – Saatchi Gallery
- Cattelan at Massimo de Carlo
- La Nona Ora
- Maurizio Cattelan on the Italian webzine
- Guardian Unlimited interview with Maurizio Cattelan
- Contemporary interview with Maurizio Cattelan and Massimiliano Gioni
- MAURIZIO CATTELAN, photos of works
- Feature about Maurizio Cattelan. Ben Lewis. (Video)
- Maurizio Cattelan at Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
- http://www.fundacionnmac.org/english/coleccion.php?id=68 [Maurizio Cattelan at NMAC Foundation]