Maurizio Cattelan biography

Maurizio Cattelan is an Italian artist known for his artistic provocations that made him the most famous and controversial among contemporary Italian artists. He was born in Padua in 1960 to a family with no ties to the art world. From a young age, he was interested in radio technology, spending most of his time dismantling old objects like radios and televisions and acquiring skills in cutting and assembling various types of materials. This interest led him to enroll in the Technical Industrial Institute.
After graduation, Maurizio Cattelan found himself doing various jobs, from gardener to waiter, never abandoning his first passion, which was creating compositions. Photos of these works were sent to art galleries around the world. When the Galleria Neon di Bologna agreed to exhibit one of his artworks, Maurizio Cattelan's life changed completely.
The artist's vision can only be understood by considering his training, which is essentially self-taught. Despite the common opinion that to become a successful artist it is mandatory to follow a training path at prestigious schools and academies, Maurizio Cattelan has never shared this view, stating several times in interviews that, from his point of view, it is much more decisive to develop listening and confrontation talents than to enroll and attend schools that involve high costs.
Maurizio Cattelan's artistic career began in the early 1990s with one of his first artworks, Stadium, which was exhibited at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Bologna. Stadium was a foosball table where real players were placed at the ends. The white players were the reserves of the Cesena football team, while the black players were Senegalese workers who worked in Veneto.
From his debut, therefore, Maurizio Cattelan managed to provoke great astonishment, attracting both admiration and disdain. The artist's artworks are a perfect blend of sculpture and performance. The artist from Padua manages to mock the art world and its mechanisms. In fact, besides being a respected and world-famous artist, Cattelan is also a great communicator able to benefit from both negative publicity and critics who point fingers and accuse him.
In 2010 he created a project in collaboration with photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari, giving life to the magazine named Toiletpaper.
After taking a 5-year break between 2012 and 2017, he resumed his career and divides his time between Milan and New York. He is considered one of the highest-paid living artists. His artworks, in fact, have achieved a total value of about 86 million dollars.
Among his most representative artworks we remember Cattelan's Horse. This artwork, although known to the general public as Cattelan's Horse, is actually titled Novecento. The reference to the film by director Bertolucci is clear and it is an artwork made in 1997 which essentially consists of a taxidermy horse tied to the ceiling by a particular leather harness. The posture and neck of the animal convey to the viewer a sense of frustration, of insecurity. According to what the artist stated about this artwork, the themes addressed are very common in his works. It is not, therefore, an isolated case.
The Ninth Hour from 1999 is a sculpture representing one of the most beloved popes in history, namely John Paul II, who appears lying down and struck by a meteorite. Made from various types of materials, this artwork refers to the financial and sexual scandals the Church was going through at that time.
Comedian is among the artworks that caused the greatest stir and consists of the famous banana glued with a piece of gray adhesive tape to a wall. The artwork was exhibited at the Perrotin gallery at Art Basel Miami Beach. The idea was born during his travels. In fact, Maurizio Cattelan was designing a sculpture in the shape of a banana. To find the right inspiration, he hung a banana, which he always carried with him, in the various hotel rooms where he stayed. After making prototypes in different materials, the artist returned to the original idea: a real banana. The purpose of this artwork, which explicitly refers to pop art, is to make people reflect on the value of the artwork and the value given to objects. Comedian was also the protagonist of a further event involving it. In fact, an American contemporary artist, David Datuna, took the banana off the stand and, in front of many people present, ate the fruit, declaring he considered Cattelan's artwork very tasty.
Cattelan's middle finger or LOVE acronym standing for liberty, hate, vengeance, eternity. It is one of the most imposing creations of the artist. LOVE, in fact, is over ten meters tall and was built using quintals of Carrara marble. The artwork was placed, in 2010, in the famous Piazza Affari in Milan which hosts the Stock Exchange. It depicts a hand showing the fascist salute, but the erosion of time has left only the middle finger visible. The exhibition location has a very specific meaning. In fact, the Milan Stock Exchange is one of the symbols of fascist architecture.