Maurizio CATTELAN

eeum Museum of Art is pleased to present WE, a solo exhibition by Maurizio Cattelan, one of the most controversial artists of our times. Featuring 38 works from the three decades since his emergence in the 1990s, this exhibition is the largest survey of the artist's oeuvre since his 2011 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Cattelan’s hyperrealistic sculptures and paintings are straightforward and recognizable, while also cleverly and stealthily appropriating art history and popular culture. Strewn with satirical and cynical anecdotes, his works audaciously demand us to confront uncomfortable truths and overturn our foundations of perception. Distancing himself from the role of an artist who preaches or enlightens, Cattelan voluntarily caricatures and offers himself up to accusations of fraud, ridicule and criticism. Ironically, the very antics that garnered him a reputation as a provocateur, prankster, and even a swindler at times, render him a keen critic of reality piercing through human nature and contemporary society. From all corners of the exhibition, the gaze of multiple Cattelans as intruder, police officer, priest, criminal, artist, and boy invites us to partake in a Cattelanesque theater of human comedy and the provocative jokester intricately mobilizes Chaplin-style comic devices throughout the space, forging wistful bonds in the face of the cruelty of life.  

WE, the title of the exhibition, borrowed from one of the artist’s works, is more than a simple reference to the piece; it questions what exactly is meant by the word: Who are "we"? What makes us who "we" are? And how are "we" related? Cattelan's practice challenges us to reflect on these questions while considering the notions of oppression, anxiety, authority, religion, love, family, life and death, altogether encouraging deeper conversations and facilitating greater solidarity. An image of a pope struck down by a meteorite (La Nona Ora, 1999) resonates beyond the religion and region it represents, ushering in a broader debate on the meaning of authority and oppression. The nine Carrara marble sculptures reminiscent of corpses (All, 2007) commemorate and remind us of a recent tragedy nearby, circling us back to our stark realities and gently touching our lives.