The sculpture of Maurizio Cattelan
by Dean Spicer
As my third week at Red C draws to a close I can only look back and wonder how it’s gone so quickly. Nonetheless after relocating to Manchester, finding a new flat, and establishing an acceptable groove in my office chair, I thought it was about time ‘the new boy‘ contributed to the agency’s ‘We Like’ page.
So I thought I’d share the work of the satirical sculptor Maurizio Cattelan, (like you do). To say I’ve been a fan would be a bit much but I can definitely count myself among his many admirers.
Whilst working in a mortuary, Italian born Maurizio decided he’d like a career change, so he created a series of humorous works and attempted to flog his art to some local galleries. The rest, as they say, is history.
One of his most famous sculptures, and one of my personal favourites ‘La Nona Ora’ consists of an effigy of Pope John Paul II in full ceremonial dress being crushed by a meteor, and is a prime example of his tongue in cheek style. His art pokes fun at various systems of order, be it social niceties or digs at the art world – and there are few other artists that will make you smile quite so frequently.
A recent exhibition by a certain Mr Banksy left me a little surprised that none of the media picked up on the obvious parallels between the style of Cattelan’s work and the Bristol based graffiti artist. It made me wonder why although Maurizio has enjoyed commercial success and critical acclaim, his work has failed to really break into the mainstream – particularly when his observations and wit are far superior to the suspected public school boy with a spray can. But maybe for Cattelan, the admiration of his peers and selling works at Christie’s for three million dollars is far more important than attracting the limelight of the mass media.
If you’ve got some spare time, or a spare couple of quid, I highly recommend looking into the sculpture of Maurizio Cattelan. His stimulating work and eccentric personality will engross even the most cynical art critic.
These pictures are merely a few examples of his work, if you’d like to find out more about the cheekily irreverent work of Maurizio Cattelan, there’s a book available from Phaidon which you can find here.
Tags: Art, Art Direction, Award-Winning Advertising Agency, Banksy, Design, Digital Agency, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Agency, La Nona Ora, Manchester Advertising Agency, Manchester Design Agency, Marketing Agency, Maurizio Cattelan, Phaidon, Pope John Paul II, Sculpture
