Maurizio Cattelan
1960–
Maurizio Cattelan has been called a huckster, a prankster, and a firebrand. He began making art at the end of the 1980s, demonstrating a penchant for the performative and talent as an escape artist. (Short of ideas for an exhibition in the early 1990s, he hung a string of knotted sheets from the window of the gallery, the inside of which he left bare.) Since then, Cattelan has developed a body of work consisting mainly of lifelike sculpture, including waxworks and animals reconstructed by taxidermy, and large-scale installations blending social and institutional critique. Interspersed among these—and equally disturbing— are poignant scenarios alluding to themes of innocence and mortality. A quintessential “post-studio” artist, Cattelan produces work on an exhibition-by-exhibition basis, using each scheduled project as a catalyst for new work. As he has said: “I really just take advantage of the exhibition situation. Because I don’t have a studio, I use shows as a means to get work produced.”
When invited to participate in the Whitney Museum’s 2004 Biennial, he proposed a piece that was eventually deemed too controversial to be included in the exhibition. He made Untitled in response, using an existing work he created for a project in Kitakyushu, Japan—a sculpture from 2000 in which he depicted himself seated at a table with his head planted in a plate of spaghetti. Cattelan instructed that the piece be sealed in a box and buried in an undisclosed location inside the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer building. The work is now re-sited at the Whitney’s downtown location, where a wall label and accompanying engraving on a stone of the lobby floor are the only indications that it exists. This project—continuing his longstanding interest in institutional critique and public reception—is an implicit burial of his artistic voice beneath the Museum’s authority, something further underscored by the epitaph above, accompanying this text.
Introduction
Maurizio Cattelan (Italian: [mauˈrittsjo katteˈlan]; born 21 September 1960) is an Italian visual artist. Known primarily for his hyperrealistic sculptures and installations, Cattelan's practice also includes curating and publishing. His satirical approach to art has resulted in him being frequently labelled as a joker or prankster of the art world. Self-taught as an artist, Cattelan has exhibited internationally in museums and Biennials. Maurizio Cattelan created his most important works of art at Viale Bligny 42 in Milan, where he lived for many years.
In 2011, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City presented a retrospective of his work. Some of Cattelan's better-known works include America, consisting of a solid gold toilet; La Nona Ora, a sculpture depicting a fallen Pope John Paul II who has been hit by a meteorite; and Comedian, a fresh banana duct-taped to a wall as a 2019 limited edition of three, one of which sold for $6.2 million in 2024.
Wikidata identifier
Q655398
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed April 15, 2025.
Country of birth
Italy
Roles
Artist, conceptual artist, installation artist, object artist, painter, performance artist, photographer, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500116125
Names
Maurizio Cattelan, Maurizo Cattelan, Maurizio Cattellan
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 15, 2025.
