Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan was named the most powerful artist in ArtReview’s 2004 poll of the biggest movers and shakers in the art world. Self taught artist Cattelan has exhibited in some of the world’s most important museums such as MOMA, New York and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. His work is held in many public and private collections including Guggenheim Museum, New York, Foundation Pinault, Paris and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin. Maurizio Cattelan teases the artworld without falling into the naïve trap of thinking he can subvert a system of which he is a part. In 1998 he arranged for an actor dressed in a Pablo Picasso mask and striped jumper to greet visitors to New Yorks MOMA. Cattelan was satirising the postmodern museum and its similarity to a cultural Disneyland. Said Cattelan: ‘The public, coming to see an exhibition of Jackson Pollock, understood so well my concept that they thought it was Jackson Pollock himself welcoming the public!’