His route to the upper echelons of the art world has been an unorthodox one; with no formal training in painting or any artistic practices, Cattelan’s career began in carpentry in the 1980s and he only shifted into the art realm towards the end of the decade, as he approached his 30s. Whilst a certain sardonic humour has been a constant of his work through the years, the tools he has called upon throughout the journey have varied massively. As he first began to garner acclaim in the mid-90s, it was Cattelan’s use of anthropomorphic taxidermy which caught the attention of many, with suicidal squirrels (Bidibidobidiboo, 1996) and hung horses (Novecento, 1997) offering an amusing degree of cynicism. At the turn of the millennia came the advent of the pieces for which Cattelan is perhaps best known: his hyper- realistic sculptures, many of notable public figures, ranging from the Pope to himself. As his journey as an artist has continued, the range of media behind Cattelan’s work has become more diverse and more abstract; in 2002 he co-founded The Wrong Gallery in New York, which was essentially a door into a tiny empty room. 2019’s Comedian grabbed headlines over the globe as it saw, at least in theory, Maurizio sell a banana and some duct tape for $120,000 (although later on in this interview he sheds a bit more light on the concept behind the infamous piece).
Cattelan is everything that traditionalists fear and despise about modern art, which is what makes his work so important within a contemporary context. From the permanence of his artworks to the authorship, there are light years between Maurizio Cattelan and what one’s conventional idea of an artist might be; ultimately, he is a figure who deals in ideas, perhaps more comparable to Plato than Picasso. It would not be hyperbole to characterise Cattelan as one of, if not the, most central figures in relation to the concept of value in the contemporary art world, given how central a theme it is in his works. Thus, it would’ve been inexcusable for us to speculate upon the topic for this issue without asking for his two cents – here’s what he had to say...
Cattelan is everything that traditionalists fear and despise about modern art, which is what makes his work so important within a contemporary context. From the permanence of his artworks to the authorship, there are light years between Maurizio Cattelan and what one’s conventional idea of an artist might be; ultimately, he is a figure who deals in ideas, perhaps more comparable to Plato than Picasso. It would not be hyperbole to characterise Cattelan as one of, if not the, most central figures in relation to the concept of value in the contemporary art world, given how central a theme it is in his works. Thus, it would’ve been inexcusable for us to speculate upon the topic for this issue without asking for his two cents – here’s what he had to say...