© Jeremy Liebman
Maurizio Cattelan

© Jeremy Liebman

Maurizio Cattelan

Born in 1960, in Padoue (Italy)

Lives and works in New-York City (United States of America)

Since the early 1990s, Maurizio Cattelan has built his reputation with work that is both spectacular and provocative, combining extreme satire with a streak of melancholy to underline the contradictions of contemporary society.

Cattelan uses the media to situate his work in a socio-political context. Since the start of his career he has represented his withdrawal from an aesthetic territory like an escape from prison. He conceives his works as "images", the most famous of which feature high-profile and controversial figures such as Picasso, Pope Jean-Paul II and Hitler. He has also used animal metaphors to create pieces that represent death and failure. His practice can take various forms: sculpture, the creation of a tiny gallery, the organisation of exhibitions and the publishing of newspapers.

Selected Bibliography

Bonami, Francesco ; De Poli, Luigi. Cattelan, Maurizio : autobiographie non autorisée. Dijon : Les Presses du réel, 2013. (Collection Fama). 

Spector, Nancy ; Solomon R. Guggenheim museum (New York, N.Y.). Maurizio Cattelan : all : [exhibition, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, November 4, 2011 - January 22, 2012]. New York : Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2011. 

Bonami, Francesco ; Spector, Nancy ; Vanderlinden, Barbara. Maurizio Cattelan. London : Phaidon, 2010. (Contemporary artists). 

Sirmans, Franklin ; Menil collection (Houston, Tex.). Maurizio Cattelan : is there life before death? : [exhibition, the Menil collection, Houston, February 12-August 15, 2010]. Houston (Tex.) : Yale University Press, 2010. 

Manacorda, Francesco. Maurizio Cattelan. Paris : Hazan, 2007. (Hypercontemporain).

***   All materials available at the Documentation Centre of the Fondation  ***

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