Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan Untitled 1999 Chromogenic print, face-mounted to plexiglass 182.9 x 228.6 cm. Print 2 from an edition of 10 (certified by the Goodman invoice) - Slight shift of colour due to age. Provenance Marian Goodman Gallery, New York; private collection, Luxembourg Literature Madeleine Schuppli (ed.), Maurizio Cattelan, exhib.cat. Kunsthalle Basel, Basel 1999, ill. on front cover; Francesco Bonami et al. (ed.), Maurizio Cattelan, London 2000, ill. p. 133; Nancy Spector, Maurizio Cattelan: All, exhib.cat. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; New York 2011, ill. p. 87 Once a prankster, a provocateur, even a phony to someone, Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960) has been variously labelled as a disruptor within the art system. He has though proved most of his critics wrong, establishing himself as one of the leading conceptual artists of his generation, with a career spanning over more than three decades. The present composition ‚Untitled‘ originates from a performance that Cattelan staged at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in November 1998. ‚Project#65 – Maurizio Cattelan‘ consisted of a performer wearing a costume and an oversized head-mask with the traits of Pablo Picasso in his later years. Unmistakeably recognizable in his once favoured French sailor’s sweater, this caricatural version of the greatest of all modern artists, would roam free and mingle with the Museum visitors, silently engaging and posing for photos with them, but also acting defiantly in the way of a sport team mascot, not without the typical repertoire of rude gestures, so as to emphasize on the desecrating artistic intention of the performance, but to everyone’s amusement as well. This subversion between High and Popular culture is at the heart of the Italian’s narrative, together with the demystification of the role and sacrality of the Museum by questioning its lack of inclusivity and dull mass-marketing strategies. Within ‚Untitled‘, our “Picasso”, poignantly an alter-ego of Cattelan himself, poses in front of a Roy Lichtenstein ‚Interior with Mobile‘ also part of the collection of the MoMA. Produced just after the performance, this composition was first exhibited in a group Summer Show at Marian Goodman in 1999, which marked the debut for the artist with the Midtown Gallery. Cattelan’s constant mockery of Institutions and commercial Galleries that supported him over the years is functional to his ambivalent criticism of the art world’s hierarchical structure, but at the same time one effective way to acknowledge and ultimately reinforce its instances and cliché. „In the grand tradition of Italian comedy that stretches from the commedia dell’arte to Fellini movies, Cattelan‘s work is irreverent, self-deprecating, and sharply satirical. His relationship to both his public and his patrons resembles that of a court jester; his work amuses but it also goads. At its best, it reveals the delicate relationships and motivations of those involved in the creation, exhibition, and consumption of art.“ (Laura Hoptman, in the press release for 'Projects #65 - Maurizio Cattelan', November 6-December 4, 1998, MoMA New York City)