L.o.v.e, 2015

Maurizio Cattelan   Master Artists

Maurizio Cattelan entered the contemporary art market by the end of the 2000s through an innovative procedure. By sending a thousand emails with copies of his catalogs with all his creations in it, which at that time were mostly small wooden furniture. The procedure was a success, between the happening and the communication operation, which did not fail to make him known.

Maurizio Cattelan's works are full of irony, he criticizes the art market. His satirical spirit leads him to make atypical and original creations, in the form of sculptures. He bases his work on social frictions to cause a certain discomfort. He covers new artistic territory, which he became quickly identified with.

His most notable piece in 1999 "The Novo Ora" (The Ninth Hour) where he shows Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite. He attacked religion as well as the Italian Icon that the pope embodies.

Without any taboo, he continued his subversive process by exploiting the figure of Hitler. Very realistic, he poses him, knees on the ground, actually doing a prayer. Presented by the simple name of "Him", he places his character in the former Warsaw ghetto, an appearance which was a sensation when exposed in 2012, after being exposed in Sweden for the first time in 2001.

Having a lot of humor, he did not hesitate to portray himself lying in a coffin in 2004 with the label "Now."

Finally, in 2010 the artist was invited by the Mayor of Milan to do ten creations for the city. One of them, called LOVE which was posed on a major square of the city and represents a hand with only a single finger standing while the others are cut.

Maurizio Cattelan is considered today one of the major artists of the contemporary scene. He did a solo exhibition at the Monnaie de Paris in 2016.