Maurizio Cattelan: an innovator, a thinker, a provocateur, an artist. Cattelan has garnered many names over his career, even gaining the prestigious title of “Italy’s most famous contemporary artist." Born in Italy and now living in New York, the artist now has a retrospective on view at the Guggenheim Museum.
Entitled Maurizio Cattelan: All, the exhibition displays over 120 of the artist’s controversial and critically-acclaimed works. These works hand from the ceiling, dangling down into the famous rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s building. Taxidermied horses, whimsical statues of the artist peeking up from a floorboard, a massive recreation of mastodon-like bones, a giant white hand with the middle finger pointing directly up, a representation of a police officer hung upside-down, a statue of the pope felled by a meteor, and a Pinocchio facing the floor are all part of the show.
Ingeniously curated and designed, the entire museum is transformed, putting Frank Lloyd Wright’s simple and smooth curves of the ramps in opposition with the myriad of items hanging lifelessly from heavy cords at the top of the building. The walls themselves are completely bare, forcing people to look towards the center of the museum, leaning over the ramp to view works from above or below. (If you suffer from vertigo, perhaps this is not the show for you…)
Only 51 years old, Maurizio Cattelan has already announced his intent to retire with the close of this show. By displaying all of his works together in the Guggenheim, he has created one final masterpiece of art, his pièce de résistance, if you will. His works are witty, political, fun, shocking, and most of all, inspired.
So far, All has garnered quite a bit of attention, with criticisms ranging from questioning the validity of his art to the provocative nature of the works on view, and from the decontextualization of the works themselves to the commercialization of the show. Well, audiences seem to love it despite the negative criticism (cameras are allowed!). The appeal rests in the new and unknown. Although not exactly how the artist intended his works to be displayed originally, it was Cattelan’s own idea to hang them in such a way, thus recycling his works to create one grand, new piece of art. And if it gets visitors in through the museum’s doors and encourages them to talk about art, its uses and its production, then the artist and the gallery are both doing their jobs well.
This show is definitely worth the visit, but it’s only around for one more week! Stop by the museum (Monday and Tuesday nights have extended hours through 7:45pm) before All closes on January 22.
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