Humour and satire are at the core of Cattelan's work. This approach has often seen him labelled variously as an art scene joker, jester or prankster. He has been described by Jonathan P. Binstock, curator of contemporary art at the
Corcoran Gallery of Art, "as one of the great post-
Duchampian artists and a smartass, too". Discussing the topic of originality with ethnographer,
Sarah Thornton, Cattelan explained, "Originality doesn't exist by itself. It is an evolution of what is produced. ... Originality is about your capacity to add." His work was often based on simple puns or subverts clichéd situations by, for example, substituting animals for people in sculptural tableaux. "Frequently morbidly fascinating, Cattelan's humour sets his work above the visual pleasure one-liners," wrote Carol Vogel of
The New York Times. Cattelan's first artwork has been noted as a photo art piece in 1989 entitled
Lessico Familiare (Family Syntax), a framed self-portrait in which he is depicted forming a
Hand Heart over his naked chest. In 1992, Cattelan started the
Oblomov Foundation (named after
Ivan Goncharov's 1859 novel
Oblomov and its idle main character) which raised ten thousand dollars to offer as a grant to an artist who would undertake not to make or show any work for one year. Since there were no successful applicants, Cattelan used the money for a long holiday in New York. Cattelan is commonly noted for his use of
taxidermy during the mid-1990s.
Novecento (1997) consists of the taxidermied body of a former racehorse named Tiramisu, which hangs by a harness in an elongated, drooping posture. Another work utilizing taxidermy is
Bidibidobidiboo (1996), a miniature depiction of a
squirrel slumped over its kitchen table, a
handgun at its feet. In 1999, he started making life-size wax effigies of various subjects, including himself. One of his best known sculptures,
La Nona Ora (1999), consists of an effigy of
Pope John Paul II in full ceremonial costume being crushed by a meteor.
Curating In 1999, he co-curated with
Jens Hoffmann the 6th Caribbean Biennial. In 2002, he co-founded with Ali Subotnick and
Massimiliano Gioni "The Wrong Gallery", a glass door leading to a 2.5 square foot exhibition space at 516A½ West 20th street in New York City. After the building housing the gallery was sold, the door and gallery was put on display within the collection of the Tate Modern until 2009. Articles by Cattelan frequently appear in international publications such as
Flash Art.
Publishing From 1996 to 2007, Cattelan collaborated with Dominique Gonzalez-Foster and Paola Manfrin on the publication
Permanent Food, an occasional journal consisting of a pastiche of pages torn from other magazines and submissions by artists of similar material. From 2002 he collaborated on the satirical arts journal
Charley, a series on contemporary artists. In 2009, Cattelan teamed up with Italian photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari to create an editorial for
Ws Art Issue. In 2010, they founded the magazine
Toiletpaper, a bi-annual, picture-based publication. As part of a public art series at the
High Line in 2012,
Toiletpaper was commissioned with a billboard at the corner of 10th Avenue and West 18th Street in New York, showing an image of a woman's manicured and jeweled fingers, detached from their hands, emerging from a vibrant blue velvet background. In 2014, Cattelan and Ferrari produced a fashion spread for the Spring Fashion issue of
New York. In the project entitled
1968, A
Toiletpaper collaboration between Maurizio Cattelan, Pierpaolo Ferrari and the Deste Foundation in Athens, Cattelan celebrates the works in
Dakis Joannou's collection of radical design.
Toilet Paper differs from the two previously magazine projects, as its photographs were planned and designated solely for the magazine. The level of originality for this magazine surpassed the others, providing the audience vague, oddly familiar photographs to peruse through.
Toilet Paper is a surrealist pantomime of images that the viewer cannot easily trace back to a starting point, while they've most likely been conjured by popular culture. It is a whirlwind of loud colors mixed in with the occasional black-and-white photo: "the pictures probe the unconscious, tapping into sublimated perversions and spasms of violence." ==Selected works==