The terrifying effect – Cattelan’s corpses.

Maurizio Cattelan has always searched for effects in art. If he uses silicone or human hair, or hangs children or strikes the Pope with a meteor it is because he wants to impress and amaze. He wants to shock, to inspire fear and strain because he believes that anxiety is the right state of mind to understand the meaning of his creations. Through a shocking visual and formal expression the artist wants to convey the dramatic tonality of his reflections on death, but also on the abuse of power, the fear to fail, the uncertainty and alienation that characterise contemporary man.
The theme of death has often been dealt with in the works of the Padua-born artist, to the extent that he used it as the basic element of his anthological exhibition entitled “Maurizio Cattelan: All”, held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Cattelan and the editors, Nancy Spector and Katherine Brison have fixed a number of works to a metal grid hanging from the ceiling. No wonder visitors felt scared and sinisterly surprised at seeing the hanged works. Cattelan displayed his lifeless and motionless works of art as if they were the victims of a summary execution, to let the pubic know that it was his last exhibition, the end of his career, the death of the artist Maurizio Cattelan.

Maurizio Cattelan: All
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York