MAURIZIO CATTELAN
Fondation Beyeler
Baselstrasse 77 - Riehen
8/6/2013 - 6/10/2013
Maurizio Cattelan is one of the most-discussed artists of our day. Back in the 1990s he began to produce sculptures that surprised and astonished the public and the art world. His multi-faceted oeuvre reflects society's paradoxes and alienation, as well as individuals' struggle to find their place in it. Critical and humorous but always profound, Cattelan concerns himself with a variety of themes, including politics, religion, power, identity, life and death.
Cattelan's works can be simultaneously seductive and provocative, cheerful and depressing, poetic and shocking. Only rarely does he reveal his intentions, preferring to play the perfectly staged role of a witty provocateur. In the winter of 2011-12 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York honored him with a retrospective presentation of nearly all of the works he ever executed. At the time of the exhibition Cattelan announced his retirement from the art world. This is only one reason why his project at the Fondation Beyeler, on view from 8 June to 6 October 2013, is being expectantly awaited.
Maurizio Cattelan was born in Padua, Italy, in 1960. After diverse part-time jobs, he found recognition as an industrial designer and decided on a career in art after having seen a work by Michelangelo Pistoletto, an important representative of Arte Povera. Without being straightforwardly autobiographical, Cattelan's works convey their content by means of personal emotional and psychological experiences. He himself serves as an exemplary figure with whose weaknesses and conflicts the viewer can identify.
Cattelan's most recent solo exhibitions in the German-speaking area were held in 2007, at the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst and the Portikus, Frankfurt on the Main, then in 2008, at the Kunsthaus Bregenz. The last Cattelan exhibitions in Switzerland were in 1999, at the Kunsthalle Basel, and in 2000, at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich.
Image: Untitled, 2001, wax, pigment, human hair, fabric and polyester resin, 150 cm x 60 cm x 40 cm, Photo: Zeno Zotti, Courtesy, Maurizio Cattelan's Archive
Fondation Beyeler
Baselstrasse 77 - Riehen
8/6/2013 - 6/10/2013
Maurizio Cattelan is one of the most-discussed artists of our day. Back in the 1990s he began to produce sculptures that surprised and astonished the public and the art world. His multi-faceted oeuvre reflects society's paradoxes and alienation, as well as individuals' struggle to find their place in it. Critical and humorous but always profound, Cattelan concerns himself with a variety of themes, including politics, religion, power, identity, life and death.
Cattelan's works can be simultaneously seductive and provocative, cheerful and depressing, poetic and shocking. Only rarely does he reveal his intentions, preferring to play the perfectly staged role of a witty provocateur. In the winter of 2011-12 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York honored him with a retrospective presentation of nearly all of the works he ever executed. At the time of the exhibition Cattelan announced his retirement from the art world. This is only one reason why his project at the Fondation Beyeler, on view from 8 June to 6 October 2013, is being expectantly awaited.
Maurizio Cattelan was born in Padua, Italy, in 1960. After diverse part-time jobs, he found recognition as an industrial designer and decided on a career in art after having seen a work by Michelangelo Pistoletto, an important representative of Arte Povera. Without being straightforwardly autobiographical, Cattelan's works convey their content by means of personal emotional and psychological experiences. He himself serves as an exemplary figure with whose weaknesses and conflicts the viewer can identify.
Cattelan's most recent solo exhibitions in the German-speaking area were held in 2007, at the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst and the Portikus, Frankfurt on the Main, then in 2008, at the Kunsthaus Bregenz. The last Cattelan exhibitions in Switzerland were in 1999, at the Kunsthalle Basel, and in 2000, at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich.
Image: Untitled, 2001, wax, pigment, human hair, fabric and polyester resin, 150 cm x 60 cm x 40 cm, Photo: Zeno Zotti, Courtesy, Maurizio Cattelan's Archive
