Product Description

This comprehensive monograph documents the work of Maurizio Cattelan, the best-known Italian artist to have emerged internationally in the 1990s. His work has featured in three editions of the Venice Biennale (1993; 1997; 1999) and in major venues worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998); and the Tate Gallery, London (1999). Cattelan creates sculptures that mock the art system and even the artist himself, with considerable wit and audacity. Poking fun at art history (with, for example, a giant, Disneyland-type figure of Pablo Picasso greeting visitors at New York's Museum of Modern Art), monumentality (with a tomb-like marble epitaph listing all the football matches lost by the England team, exhibited in a prominent London gallery), his native Italy (in a major exhibition celebrating new Italian art, Cattelan created a rug forming a map of his country - inevitably trampled and soiled beneath museum visitors' feet), and often makes fun of himself and his own inability to be a responsible, "serious" artist. Part jester, part accuser of the contemporary art world, part thief, Cattelan also conveys a lonely desperation behind the humour and sarcasm in his unconventional works.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #254151 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 212 pages

About the Author
Maurizio Cattelan is Italy's best-known young artist, an artist with a strong international audience. His galleries are: Anthony d'Offay, London, Dering Street, London W1, (0171) 499-4100; Marian Goodman, 24 W 57th Street, New York, NY 10019, tel. (212) 977-7160, fax 581 5187; and Emmanuel Perrotin, 30 rue Louise Weiss, 75013 Paris, tel. 1 4216.7979, fax 4216.7974. Francesco Bonami (Survey) is Artistic Director of the 2003 Venice Biennale. Formerly Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, his many previous curatorial roles have included Manifesta 3 (Ljubliana, 2000). American Editor of Flash Art from 1990 to 1997, Bonami has followed Cattelan's work for many years, and wrote on the artist in cream, Phaidon Press, 1998. Nancy Spector (Interview) is Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Her exhibitions there have included Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1995), Robert Rauschenberg: Performance (1997) and Andreas Slominski (1999). Spector is a regular contributor to Artforum, Parkett and frieze magazines, and is one of the 10 contributing curators to cream 3 (Phaidon, 2003). Barbara Vanderlinden (Focus) is an independent curator who founded and directs the independent exhibition space Roomade in Brusssels. In 1998 she was co-curator (with Maria Lind and Robert Fleck) of Manifesta 2 (Luxembourg), the international exhibition which included, among others, a new work by Maurizio Cattelan. For his Artist's Choice Cattelan has chosen two texts: an extract from Portnoy's Complaint (1969), on the angst and sexual anguish of growing up, by American novelist Philip Roth, winner of the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and some excerpts from... Or Not To Be: A Collection of Suicide Notes (ed. Marc Etkind, 1997) an anthology of real suicide messages from the anonymous and the world famous. Massimiliano Gioni (Update) heads the American US desk of Flash Art International and is a noted independent critic and curator, recently nominated as curator for the Italian Pavilion for the 2003 Venice Biennale. Gioni is also Maurizio Cattelan's closest collaborator, often acting as the artist's spokesman and even standing in for the artist as his alter-ego. Author's Residence: Francesco Bonami: Chicago; Nancy Spector: New York; Barbara Vanderlinden: Brussels

Customer Reviews

One of the funniest artists
This book has been one of, if not the, best buys I have made this year. As a fan of conceptual art, I loved learning about Maurizio Cattelan, his thoughts and what inspires him as an artist and a joker. Unlike many artist based biographies, this book has a personal feel to it. This is accomplished not only with its 'interview' structure and immense detail but also with it's unique size. However despite its tinyness, the book is packed with plenty of information with interlinking images.