11 Things You Didn’t Know About Maurizio Cattelan

Abhishek Kumar

Knowledge can be gained at any age. After having a detailed study on topics there are things unknown to us. So, we at Abirpothi present before you the lesser-known facts about artists around the world.

Maurizio Cattelan

Art is about forgetting all these feelings, good and bad, and trying to understand what acts will last longer, which symbols will remain in history. It’s a question of perspective: The further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems.

Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan is an Italian contemporary artist known for his provocative and often humorous works of art. Cattelan’s works often incorporate elements of satire and irony and challenge conventional notions of art and its role in society. Born in Padua, Italy in 1960, Cattelan began his career as a commercial artist and later transitioned to fine art, creating works that often challenge conventional norms and expectations. His works often employ found objects and everyday materials and address a wide range of issues, from political corruption to the commercialization of the art world.

Cattelan began his career as a commercial artist, working on advertising campaigns and magazines. In the 1990s, he transitioned to fine art and quickly gained recognition for his unconventional and often controversial works. Cattelan’s works often incorporate elements of satire and irony, and challenge conventional notions of art and its role in society.

Cattelan’s works often employ found objects and everyday materials, and address a wide range of issues, from political corruption to the commercialization of the art world. He has created a number of works that question the value and meaning of art, such as “L.E.D.” which is a sign that simply reads “LOVE” in bright, blinking lights, and “Gallerist,” a sculpture of a gallerist sitting at a desk, surrounded by empty frames and price lists.

One of Cattelan’s most famous works is “L.O.V.E.” which is a giant middle finger sculpture that was installed in the center of Milan. He has also created a number of works that are more straightforward and poetic, such as “All,” a suspended ball of wax that is slowly melting.

Cattelan has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2011, and his works are included in major public and private collections around the world. Despite his reputation for creating works that are often controversial and confrontational, Cattelan is also known for his humor and wit, which he often uses to challenge the viewer to think about important issues in new and unexpected ways.

11 lesser-known facts about Maurizio Cattelan

1. He is nicknamed the “Buster Keaton” of contemporary art.

   

2. In 1995, Maurizio Cattelan put on stage his Parisian gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin, disguised as a pink rabbit with a giant phallus shape.
3. Cattelan founded both the magazine’s Toilet Paper and Permanent Food.
4. In 1996, in the framework of an exhibition at the Appel Arts Center of Amsterdam, Cattelan stole the work of an artist exhibited in a next door gallery, packing everything and presenting it as his own work, “Another Fucking Readymade”.
5. In 2009, he founded his own foundation Oblomov allowing an artist to live for a year provided that he did not exposed his work.
6. In New York, he opened his own gallery named Wrong Gallery, constantly closed where nothing was sold. On the door we could find a notice on which was written “Fuck off we’re closed”.
7. In 2001, during the Venice Biennale, Cattelan invited more than 100 big collectors and gallery owners at Palermo. He took them for a ride in the biggest garbage dump of the island in which he installed a replica of the big white letters of the Hollywood hill.
8. In 1997, he co-founded the art magazine “D Weekly,” which was described as “the only magazine in the world that you don’t have to read.”

   

9. In 2011, he announced that he was retiring from making art, only to return a few years later with new works.
10. Cattelan has collaborated with other artists, including photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari, with whom he created the image-based work “Toilet Paper.” He has also been involved in curating exhibitions, including the “Young Artists’ Biennale” in Venice in 1999.
11. Cattelan’s work has been the subject of numerous books and catalogs, including a comprehensive monograph published by Rizzoli in 2011.