Maurizio Cattelan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Maurizio Cattelan
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A self-portrait sculpture of the artist in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2009
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| Born | 21 September 1960 Padua, Italy
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Notable work
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Maurizio Cattelan (born September 21, 1960) is an Italian artist famous for his sculptures and art installations. His art is often very realistic and uses humor to make people think. Because of his funny and surprising artworks, people sometimes call him a prankster or a joker in the art world.
Cattelan is a self-taught artist, meaning he never went to a formal art school. He has shown his work in museums all over the world. Some of his most famous pieces include America, a working toilet made of solid gold, and Comedian, which was a real banana duct-taped to a wall. One version of Comedian sold for $6.2 million in 2024.
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Early Life
Maurizio Cattelan was born in Padua, Italy. His mother was a cleaning lady and his father was a truck driver. Before becoming an artist, he designed and made wooden furniture in the early 1980s.
Cattelan says he learned about art by reading art books and creating his own art shows. He once said, "making shows has been my school."
How He Makes Art
Humor is a big part of Cattelan's art. He likes to take normal situations and twist them in a funny or surprising way. For example, he might use animals in place of people in his sculptures. His art is often described as both funny and thought-provoking.
Cattelan believes that art is about adding something new to what has come before. He said, "Originality doesn't exist by itself. It is an evolution of what is produced."
Using Animals and Models
In the 1990s, Cattelan often used taxidermy (the art of preserving animals) in his work. One piece, Novecento (1997), features a taxidermied horse hanging from the ceiling in a harness. Another work, Bidibidobidiboo (1996), shows a tiny squirrel that has fallen over at its kitchen table, with a small handgun at its feet.
Starting in 1999, he began creating very realistic wax models of people. One of his most famous sculptures, La Nona Ora (1999), is a wax figure of Pope John Paul II being struck down by a meteor.
Famous Artworks
Cattelan is known for creating surprising and memorable art. Here are some of his most well-known pieces.
- Working Is a Bad Job (1993): For a big art show called the Venice Biennale, he rented out his space to an advertising company. They put up a billboard for a new perfume instead of his art.
- Another ... Readymade (1996): For a show in Amsterdam, he stole all the art from another artist's nearby gallery. He planned to show it as his own work, but the police made him return it.
- Turisti (1997): He filled a room at the Venice Biennale with taxidermied pigeons to make it look like they had taken over the space.
- Mother (1999): For another Venice Biennale, he hired an Indian fakir (a type of holy man). The man was buried in sand every day with only his hands showing.
- Untitled (2001): He created a hole in the floor of a museum in Rotterdam. A sculpture of himself peeked out of the hole, looking up at the classic paintings on the walls.
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- Him (2001): This is a sculpture of a small boy kneeling in prayer. But when you look closer, the face is a realistic model of Adolf Hitler. The artwork surprised and challenged many viewers.
- Hollywood Sign (2001): He built a full-size copy of the famous Hollywood Sign on top of the biggest garbage dump in Palermo, Sicily.
- L.O.V.E. (2011): This is a giant marble sculpture of a hand with all the fingers cut off except for the middle finger. It stands in front of the Italian Stock Exchange building in Milan.
- America (2016): An 18-karat solid gold toilet that was fully functional. Visitors could actually use it. It was stolen from a museum in England in 2019 and has not been found.
- Comedian (2019): This piece was a fresh banana duct-taped to a wall at the Art Basel Miami art fair. During the show, another artist, David Datuna, pulled the banana off the wall and ate it, calling his act "Hungry Artist."
- Blind (2021): A memorial for the victims of the September 11 attacks. It is a tall, black block that looks like one of the World Trade Center towers, with the shape of an airplane passing through it.
Organizing Shows and Publishing
Besides making his own art, Cattelan also works as a curator, which means he organizes art exhibitions for other artists. In 2002, he co-founded "The Wrong Gallery" in New York City. It was one of the smallest art galleries in the world—just a glass door that led to a tiny, 2.5-square-foot space.
He also helped create several art magazines. In 2010, he started a magazine called Toiletpaper with photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari. The magazine is filled with bright, strange, and funny photographs that they create together.
Museum Shows
In 2011, the famous Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York held a huge exhibition of Cattelan's work called All. It featured 130 of his artworks from his entire career, all hanging from the center of the museum's ceiling. After this show, Cattelan announced he was retiring from art, but he has continued to create new works.
In 2016, a museum in Paris, the Monnaie de Paris, also held a major show of his art called Not Afraid of Love.
Recognition
Cattelan has received many awards for his work. In 2004, he won the Arnold Bode prize in Germany. He also has an honorary degree in Sociology from the University of Trento in Italy.
A documentary film about his life and work, called Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back, was released in 2017.
See also
In Spanish: Maurizio Cattelan para niños
