...artists i admire..

[porque]

...i have been acused in the past, both on this forum and in real life, of hating art due to my rather critical view of a lot of things...so i thought i would highlight some artists that i really enjoy seeing...the first is the contemporary italian, Maurizo Cattelan...he has been met with both critical acclaim and dismissal...

 

"him"

 

"la nona ora"

 

"bidibidobidiboo"

 

"untitled" ...link to controversy of this piece...

 

"Frank and Jamie"

 

 

 

 

 

 

maurizio cattelan

 

 

 

was born in padua in 1960.

cattelan did not attend art school but taught himself.

he worked as a cook, gardener, nurse and mortuary

attendant, before turning to making art with the hope that the

art world might offer him ‘better treatment’.

he began his creative adventures by making furniture

for his apartment - ‘functional furniture with art meaning’.

his designs were nothing special, he says, but they sparked

a lot of interest among italian magazine editors and

manufacturers. cattelan felt that designing was not right

for him, and an early show in bologna proved to be a

turning point.

today he is one of the best-known italian artist to have

emerged internationally in the 1990s, and his reputation

continues to grow.

 

maurizio cattelan’s art often combines sculpture and

performance. cattelan has a subtle sense of the paradoxes

of transgression, the limits of tolerance.

since the early 1990s, his work has provoked and challenged

the limits of contemporary value systems through its use

of irony and humor.

he teases the art world without ever falling into the naive

trap of thinking he can subvert a system of which he is part.

the characters and personas inhabiting maurizio cattelan’s

world are ghostly appearances in a personal theatre of

the absurd: policemen flipped upside down, stuffed animals

hanging from the ceiling, a swami who buried himself in sand

for hours at a time ...

suspended between reality and fiction, maurizio cattelan’s

work simulates and subverts the rules of culture and society

in a continuous game of detournement, acts of insubordination

and symbolical theft.

constantly exploring different materials, contexts and

strategies, he refuses to take any moral or ideological position,

concentrating instead on reproducing reality in all its

complexities. while he does not offer solutions, he shows that

one can survive and use the system without being consumed

by it.

 

he has had solo exhibitions in the most important museums

worldwide such as the MOMA, new york and the museum of

contemporary art, los angeles.

other recent presentation include ludwig museum in cologne,

germany and at the museum of contemporary art in chicago.

he has had the most numerous participations at the venice

biennale. during his five-time presence at the biennale he

imposed his work as a crucial point of reference in today’s art.

maurizio cattelan works are part of some of the most important

public and private collections worldwide such as:

guggenheim museum, new york; the dakis joannou collection,

athens; fondation pinault, paris; jumex collection, mexico city;

rubell family collection, miami; elaine dannheisser collection,

new york; gilles fuchs collection, paris; seattle museum of

contemporary art, seattle; migros museum, zurich; F.R.A.C.,

languedoc roussillon; fonds national d’art contemporain,

puteaux; F.R.A.C., nord-pas de calais; the israel museum,

jerusalem; castello di rivoli, turin; fondazione sandretto re

rebaudengo, turin.

 

maurizio cattelan lives and works in italy and in the USA.

 

 

INTERVIEW 2004

 

what is the best moment of the day?

I LOVE THE SMELL OF NAPALM IN THE MORNING

 

what kind of music do you listen to at the moment?

WAGNER, MOSTLY.

 

do you listen to the radio?

YES, A LOT, BUT I LOOK FOR COMMERCIALS.

 

what books do you have on your bedside table?

THE BLIND LEADING THE NAKED.

 

do you read design magazines?

I LOOK AT THE PICTURES.

 

where do you get news from? newspapers?

ANYWHERE, THEY ARE MOSTLY LIES ANYWAY.

 

do you notice how women are dressing?

OH YEZ.

 

do you have any preferences?

NO, ANYTHING GOES.

 

what kind of clothes do you avoid wearing?

MINI SKIRTS.

 

do you have any pets?

DO BACTERIA COUNT?

 

when you were a child, did you want to become an artist?

NO, I WANTED TO BECOME A DESIGNER, BUT I WASNT SMART ENOUGH.

 

where do you work on your artistic concepts?

ON THE PHONE.

 

who or which organization would you like to develop

something for?

I TEND NOT TO WORK WITH A SPECIFIC PERSON IN MIND.

ART IS A MATTER OF STATISTICS: IT'S NOT ABOUT INDIVIDUALS,

IT'S ABOUT PEOPLE.

 

do you discuss your work with other artists?

I TRY TO DISCUSS IT WITH EVERYONE: EVERY PIECE IS A TEST,

AND IT NEEDS TO BE CONFRONTED, CRITICIZED, DESTROYED

AND REBUILT. I TEND TO AVOID MY OWN OPINIONS,

AND JUST TRUST THE OTHERS.

 

describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.

LAZY.

 

can you describe an evolution in your work from your first projects

to the present day?

I TRY TO MOVE SIDEWAYS: SO THERE ARE NO EVOLUTIONS,

ONLY DIGRESSIONS.

 

what project has given you the most satisfaction?

PROBABLY THE ONES I COULDNT REALIZE:

THEY ARE STUCK IN MY MIND, AND THERE IS NOTHING I CAN

DO TO GET RID OF THEM.

 

is there any artist from the past, you appreciate a lot?

WARHOL UEBER ALLES.

 

is there any designer and/or architect from the past,

you appreciate a lot?

BORROMINI.

 

any advice for the young ?

GET OLD SOON.

 

what are you afraid of regarding the future

EVERYTHING.

 

 

...i've found his work to be both completely hilarious and interesting at the same time...many critics dismiss it as simply 'stupid art' along the lines of koons and others...on the contrary, i feel cattelan uses humor to make sharp remarks about contemporary society and the art world, whether or not the viewer knows it...

[Manifesto]

Did you pikc up the new Tokion?

he's got a pretty good interview in there.

 

"You don't look at yourself in a mirror just to see what you look like,

but rather to see if you look any different."

-Maurizio Cattelan

[Yellow Feets]

Whoa! That interview sounded like a joke. But I guess that's how some people are. Lovely work. I want to see and read more. Time for some serious google-ing.

 

 

bump!

[GnomeToys]

Are you sure that wasn't an interview with Makros?

[Manifesto]

Originally posted by Yellow Feets@May 18 2005, 11:21 PM

Whoa! That interview sounded like a joke. But I guess that's how some people are. Lovely work. I want to see and read more. Time for some serious google-ing.

 

 

bump!

Quoted post

 

 

in the tokion article he says when he gets interviewed,

sometimes he gets other people to answer for him,

or he copies answers from others peoples interviews,

and shit like that...

nothing is ever really a straight answer.

[porque]

...i used that interview because i happened to come across it, it was short and funny...there is a really good interview that he did for flash art last fall with questions submitted by viewers...if you find it at the library or somewhere, it's definately worth reading...