Modern Italian Art
1958-1959 The Pleated Kaolin of Piero Manzoni
2014 SOLD for £ 12.6M including premium
In the late 1950s, artists achieve the ancient anti-bourgeois dream of removing figures and emotion from art. Everything is allowed in materials and methods, from the use of objects by Rauschenberg or Cornell to the flamethrowers and the women brushes of Klein.
In 1958 and 1959, the series of Achromes by Piero Manzoni releases the art from the color. His wish for an absolute purity makes his approach different from the mysticism of Klein and Fontana and from Burri's disgust.
Manzoni managed to run on his canvas a magma of kaolin, this material which already a millennium earlier had brought the absolute white to the Chinese potters. Same as with Fontana's lacerations, the creative act of the artist is not fully absent: the fabric is pleated before being coated. When the paste dries, it solidifies the interstices of the furrows.
Manzoni does not act during the drying, except for monitoring the climatic conditions. The details of the texture such as thickness, bubbles and drippings escape the artist's gesture.
The largest Achrome paintings are technical feats as a homogeneous layer is needed to provide the effect of purity desired by the artist. Their pattern is a wide central horizontal band of tight grooves while the top and bottom of the artwork remain smooth, like a river flowing between its banks or like a long hair.
An Achrome painted in 1958, 116 x 148 cm, with interesting undulations of the furrows, was sold for $ 14M including premium by Christie's on 15 May 2013. Another one from the same year, 114 x 145 cm, was sold for $ 10M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008.
A similar Achrome, 110 x 150 cm with a bright contrast in some furrows is estimated £ 5M for sale on October 17 in London by Sotheby's, lot 12.
In 1958 and 1959, the series of Achromes by Piero Manzoni releases the art from the color. His wish for an absolute purity makes his approach different from the mysticism of Klein and Fontana and from Burri's disgust.
Manzoni managed to run on his canvas a magma of kaolin, this material which already a millennium earlier had brought the absolute white to the Chinese potters. Same as with Fontana's lacerations, the creative act of the artist is not fully absent: the fabric is pleated before being coated. When the paste dries, it solidifies the interstices of the furrows.
Manzoni does not act during the drying, except for monitoring the climatic conditions. The details of the texture such as thickness, bubbles and drippings escape the artist's gesture.
The largest Achrome paintings are technical feats as a homogeneous layer is needed to provide the effect of purity desired by the artist. Their pattern is a wide central horizontal band of tight grooves while the top and bottom of the artwork remain smooth, like a river flowing between its banks or like a long hair.
An Achrome painted in 1958, 116 x 148 cm, with interesting undulations of the furrows, was sold for $ 14M including premium by Christie's on 15 May 2013. Another one from the same year, 114 x 145 cm, was sold for $ 10M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008.
A similar Achrome, 110 x 150 cm with a bright contrast in some furrows is estimated £ 5M for sale on October 17 in London by Sotheby's, lot 12.
1959 The Healer of Burlap
2016 SOLD for £ 9.1M including premium
Alberto Burri is a medical officer. Taken prisoner, he is interned in Texas. Burlap is everywhere: sturdy and cheap, it is used for tents and sacks. The surgeon is aimless: he sews burlap to create pieces of art. Without knowing it at that time, this self-taught artist opens the way to Arte Povera and Neo-Dadaism: artistic expression can be effective without using luxurious materials.
Burri is a doctor and he is hypersensitive. Disgusted by the horrors of war he no longer wants to go back to his job but wishes to continue to heal through his art. He adds in acrylic the deep red of blood and the black of soot to the ochre of the sack sewn on the canvas, so offering an unprecedented artistic message.
Around 1955, he leaves his bleeding burlap for experiencing the combustion of wood and plastic, creating forms looking like pustules of flesh that are new invitations to the doctors to combat the effects of the wounds.
Yet in 1959, Burri realizes again a Sacco e Rosso in large size, 150 x 130 cm, which is indeed a synthesis and an achievement of the first period of his artistic career and also perhaps a tribute to the abstract expressionism of Rothko.
This artwork was sold for £ 1,92M including premium by Christie's on February 8, 2007, at a time when the extreme originality of post war Italian art had not yet excited the market. It is estimated £ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 10, lot 12.
Burri is a doctor and he is hypersensitive. Disgusted by the horrors of war he no longer wants to go back to his job but wishes to continue to heal through his art. He adds in acrylic the deep red of blood and the black of soot to the ochre of the sack sewn on the canvas, so offering an unprecedented artistic message.
Around 1955, he leaves his bleeding burlap for experiencing the combustion of wood and plastic, creating forms looking like pustules of flesh that are new invitations to the doctors to combat the effects of the wounds.
Yet in 1959, Burri realizes again a Sacco e Rosso in large size, 150 x 130 cm, which is indeed a synthesis and an achievement of the first period of his artistic career and also perhaps a tribute to the abstract expressionism of Rothko.
This artwork was sold for £ 1,92M including premium by Christie's on February 8, 2007, at a time when the extreme originality of post war Italian art had not yet excited the market. It is estimated £ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 10, lot 12.
1961 Venice by Night with Fontana
2017 SOLD for £ 10M including premium
In early 1961 Lucio Fontana prepares eleven acrylic paintings on canvas in a single size 150 x 150 cm for the exhibition Arte e Contemplazione in July in the Palazzo Grassi. This collection with his usual title Concetto Spaziale displays the artist's abstract impressions in Venice throughout day and night. After this achievement Fontana completed his vision by eleven other paintings before the end of that year.
Fontana knows well Venice that he often revisits with his wife Teresita. His square format also invites for a tribute to the urban balance of the Piazza San Marco, the theme of no less than four opus among the 22 artworks of the series.
On October 6 in London, Christie's sells as lot 106 one of the first eleven works. Located 'In piazza San Marco di notte con Teresita', it is certainly the best synthesis of the techniques used in this series : small holes and inlaid colored glassware on a heavy impasto of homogeneous color, a light-reflecting intense black for this specific case.
The holes form an almost regular outer square. The middle of the image is dotted with spots of color that express the artist's quest for a separation between the tangible space and the cosmos, like the glass windows in a church, anticipating the series of pierced oval canvases titled La Fine of Dio made in 1963-1964. This unconventional vision of Venice also responds to the artist's intention to promote an anti-bourgeois art.
Fontana knows well Venice that he often revisits with his wife Teresita. His square format also invites for a tribute to the urban balance of the Piazza San Marco, the theme of no less than four opus among the 22 artworks of the series.
On October 6 in London, Christie's sells as lot 106 one of the first eleven works. Located 'In piazza San Marco di notte con Teresita', it is certainly the best synthesis of the techniques used in this series : small holes and inlaid colored glassware on a heavy impasto of homogeneous color, a light-reflecting intense black for this specific case.
The holes form an almost regular outer square. The middle of the image is dotted with spots of color that express the artist's quest for a separation between the tangible space and the cosmos, like the glass windows in a church, anticipating the series of pierced oval canvases titled La Fine of Dio made in 1963-1964. This unconventional vision of Venice also responds to the artist's intention to promote an anti-bourgeois art.
1963 Cosmos and Egg
2018 SOLD for £ 17M including premium
La Fine di Dio (FD) is an outstanding sub-series of 38 opus in similar shape and size within Fontana's generic quest for the Concetto Spaziale. FD 24 was sold for $ 21M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013. It is now listed by Christie's in London on October 4, lot 115.
Meanwhile FD 22 was sold for £ 16M including premium by Sotheby's on October 15, 2015 and one of the ultimate FD examples was sold for $ 29M including premium by Christie's on November 10, 2015.
I narrated FD 24 as follows before the 2013 sale.
Lucio Fontana conceives art as an interpretation of the mysteries of the unlimited universe. Art needs a supporting material such as canvas or sculpture, that he will cut or pierce for providing an access to beyond. A contemporary of Barnett Newman, he is also a predecessor of Yves Klein.
Fontana feels that he is living in the space era. The development of the space travel matches his illusion that some infinity can now be reached. The generic title of his works, Concetto spaziale (space concept), brings together a variety of formats on which he materializes his research.
In 1963, when he opts for ovoid shaped canvases 178 x 123 cm, he knows that he reaches the best possible synthesis of his thought and he subtitles this series La Fine di Dio. Following Nietzsche, he does not really desire the death of God. He wants to be a keen interpreter.
All paintings of La Fine di Dio are monochrome but they differ from one another in a wide range of colors. The holes are large or small, and their arrangement can be either as random as the craters of the moon or in an elegant form of constellations that bring some order to the chaos. They should be displayed together for understanding the whole mystical approach of the artist.
In FD 24 the positioning of hollows is curvilinear, providing to this flat canvas the three-dimensional illusion of an egg, source and symbol of life.
Meanwhile FD 22 was sold for £ 16M including premium by Sotheby's on October 15, 2015 and one of the ultimate FD examples was sold for $ 29M including premium by Christie's on November 10, 2015.
I narrated FD 24 as follows before the 2013 sale.
Lucio Fontana conceives art as an interpretation of the mysteries of the unlimited universe. Art needs a supporting material such as canvas or sculpture, that he will cut or pierce for providing an access to beyond. A contemporary of Barnett Newman, he is also a predecessor of Yves Klein.
Fontana feels that he is living in the space era. The development of the space travel matches his illusion that some infinity can now be reached. The generic title of his works, Concetto spaziale (space concept), brings together a variety of formats on which he materializes his research.
In 1963, when he opts for ovoid shaped canvases 178 x 123 cm, he knows that he reaches the best possible synthesis of his thought and he subtitles this series La Fine di Dio. Following Nietzsche, he does not really desire the death of God. He wants to be a keen interpreter.
All paintings of La Fine di Dio are monochrome but they differ from one another in a wide range of colors. The holes are large or small, and their arrangement can be either as random as the craters of the moon or in an elegant form of constellations that bring some order to the chaos. They should be displayed together for understanding the whole mystical approach of the artist.
In FD 24 the positioning of hollows is curvilinear, providing to this flat canvas the three-dimensional illusion of an egg, source and symbol of life.
1963 Cosmic Transition
2015 SOLD for £ 16M including premium
By titling his works Concetto Spaziale in the 1960s, Lucio Fontana expresses his ambition to situate the new position of man confronted with the discoveries of science. His art removes the boundaries between monochrome painting and sculpture, like Klein's. Klein builds planetary surfaces with sponges, Fontana cracks or breaks through the canvas to reach whatever happens beyond.
With its wide variety in a unique oval size 178 x 123 cm, the sub-series La Fine di Dio consists of 38 oil paintings made in 1963 and 1964 that mark the peak of the philosophical thought of Fontana. The 6 Onement by Barnett Newman had been another representation of the creation of the cosmos.
From one work to another, the always monochrome color leads the oval from the feeder egg to the planetary orbite. The more or less large and more or less spaced holes display the constitution or the explosion of the universe. The end of God is not a death but an incapacity to reach him in the new understanding of the complexity of the egg and of the vastness of the cosmos, opening the post-theological era.
Some examples of Concetto Spaziale - Fine di Dio were painted in a deep black that is a direct evocation of the night sky. The opus 63FD22 is pierced with large evenly spaced holes. Some large holes, but not all, are surrounded by a cohort of smaller holes forming the beginning of a spiral, like the birth of a subsystem ready for takeoff.
63FD22 estimated £ 15M for sale by Sotheby's in London on October 15, lot 17.
63FD23 is the subsequent state of the cosmos, similar in design except that among the big holes only those in the center have survived, while the smaller holes now evenly punctuate the rest of the surface. They are thus revealed as the constellations that the previous phase had shown in their nascent state, according to the imagination of the artist.
63FD23 was sold for £ 9M including premium by Christie's on October 19, 2008.
With its wide variety in a unique oval size 178 x 123 cm, the sub-series La Fine di Dio consists of 38 oil paintings made in 1963 and 1964 that mark the peak of the philosophical thought of Fontana. The 6 Onement by Barnett Newman had been another representation of the creation of the cosmos.
From one work to another, the always monochrome color leads the oval from the feeder egg to the planetary orbite. The more or less large and more or less spaced holes display the constitution or the explosion of the universe. The end of God is not a death but an incapacity to reach him in the new understanding of the complexity of the egg and of the vastness of the cosmos, opening the post-theological era.
Some examples of Concetto Spaziale - Fine di Dio were painted in a deep black that is a direct evocation of the night sky. The opus 63FD22 is pierced with large evenly spaced holes. Some large holes, but not all, are surrounded by a cohort of smaller holes forming the beginning of a spiral, like the birth of a subsystem ready for takeoff.
63FD22 estimated £ 15M for sale by Sotheby's in London on October 15, lot 17.
63FD23 is the subsequent state of the cosmos, similar in design except that among the big holes only those in the center have survived, while the smaller holes now evenly punctuate the rest of the surface. They are thus revealed as the constellations that the previous phase had shown in their nascent state, according to the imagination of the artist.
63FD23 was sold for £ 9M including premium by Christie's on October 19, 2008.
1964 The New Total Art of Lucio Fontana
2015 SOLD for $ 29M including premium
Lucio Fontana is an artist of future time. The world changes. Scientific advances raise a new interpretation of universe and life. For the first time, men are traveling in space.
Modern art must be total, encompassing altogether painting and sculpture. La Fine di Dio, which is a subset started in 1963 within the Concetto Spaziale series, offers a new format to the mystic message of the artist throughout its diversity.
The canvas is cut in an oval shape whose standardized dimension of 178 x 123 cm is comparable to humans in its height. The monochrome surface is pierced with holes of various diameters whose disposition guides the imagination to a spiral galaxy or to the craters on a dry planet.
The color helps to support the extent of knowledge from egg to cosmos. The egg is a symbol of birth and a perfect form that already influenced Brancusi. The bright yellow examples of the Fine di Dio are among the latest in the series, in 1964. The artist explores and maintains the splashes of his still wet paint when he introduces his piercing tool to expand the craters.
This dual symbol of life, through shape and color, is a sumptuous achievement. A painting with a nearly homogeneous distribution of the holes was sold for £ 1,38M including premium by Sotheby's on June 25, 2003, long before the art market discovered the importance of Fontana.
The ultimate synthesis is achieved in the artwork for sale as lot 15B by Christie's on November 10 in New York, combining spiral or swirling patterns with a golden look of the surface. An indiscretion from Bloomberg reveals an estimate in the region of $ 30M.
Modern art must be total, encompassing altogether painting and sculpture. La Fine di Dio, which is a subset started in 1963 within the Concetto Spaziale series, offers a new format to the mystic message of the artist throughout its diversity.
The canvas is cut in an oval shape whose standardized dimension of 178 x 123 cm is comparable to humans in its height. The monochrome surface is pierced with holes of various diameters whose disposition guides the imagination to a spiral galaxy or to the craters on a dry planet.
The color helps to support the extent of knowledge from egg to cosmos. The egg is a symbol of birth and a perfect form that already influenced Brancusi. The bright yellow examples of the Fine di Dio are among the latest in the series, in 1964. The artist explores and maintains the splashes of his still wet paint when he introduces his piercing tool to expand the craters.
This dual symbol of life, through shape and color, is a sumptuous achievement. A painting with a nearly homogeneous distribution of the holes was sold for £ 1,38M including premium by Sotheby's on June 25, 2003, long before the art market discovered the importance of Fontana.
The ultimate synthesis is achieved in the artwork for sale as lot 15B by Christie's on November 10 in New York, combining spiral or swirling patterns with a golden look of the surface. An indiscretion from Bloomberg reveals an estimate in the region of $ 30M.
1965 Concetto Spaziale Attese by Fontana
2015 SOLD for $ 16.4M including premium by Christie's
1965 Blows through a Red Wall
2015 SOLD for $ 16M including premium
Concetto spaziale (spatial concept) is the generic title by which Lucio Fontana defines his art in the 1960s. Lacerations and holes are transforming a monochrome canvas into a kind of sculpture whose invisible reverse side expresses the beyond, impossible to reach.
The film Deserto Rosso realized by his compatriot Antonioni is released in 1964. The director introduced in this work a strong aesthetic intent including saturated colors that contrast dramatically within a bleak surrounding industrial city.
Fontana watches the movie in Venice in 1965. He comes back to his studio with a renewed mystical impulse. The artist creates blade blows into the canvas as sharp as a stroke by a brush. Imitating the wall viewed in the film, Fontana slashes 24 vertical razor lines in parallel in a red painted canvas 65 x 200 cm. A few autograph words inscribed on the reverse are indicating the source of his inspiration.
This artwork is estimated $ 15M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 11, lot 8.
For the artist, each incision strengthens his hope of attaining the knowledge. He gives the name of Attese (expectations) to this sub-series. He exploits this theme extensively on all pure colors, with a variable number of strokes. When only one scar affects the canvas, the work becomes Attesa in the singular. A red Attesa 197 x 144 cm was sold for £ 6.7 million including premium by Christie's on February 6, 2008.
The price of an Attese depends on the complexity of the positioning of the lines which the perfect gesture of the artist's hand is reproducing flawless. A white Attese 80 x 100 cm with a total of 23 slightly oblique cuts in two rows was sold for £ 8.4M including premium by Sotheby's on February 10, 2015. A red Attese 116 x 90 cm with a total of 14 cuts in two rows was sold for $ 16.4M including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2015.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's to introduce the Concetto Spaziale - Attese of the next sale.
The film Deserto Rosso realized by his compatriot Antonioni is released in 1964. The director introduced in this work a strong aesthetic intent including saturated colors that contrast dramatically within a bleak surrounding industrial city.
Fontana watches the movie in Venice in 1965. He comes back to his studio with a renewed mystical impulse. The artist creates blade blows into the canvas as sharp as a stroke by a brush. Imitating the wall viewed in the film, Fontana slashes 24 vertical razor lines in parallel in a red painted canvas 65 x 200 cm. A few autograph words inscribed on the reverse are indicating the source of his inspiration.
This artwork is estimated $ 15M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 11, lot 8.
For the artist, each incision strengthens his hope of attaining the knowledge. He gives the name of Attese (expectations) to this sub-series. He exploits this theme extensively on all pure colors, with a variable number of strokes. When only one scar affects the canvas, the work becomes Attesa in the singular. A red Attesa 197 x 144 cm was sold for £ 6.7 million including premium by Christie's on February 6, 2008.
The price of an Attese depends on the complexity of the positioning of the lines which the perfect gesture of the artist's hand is reproducing flawless. A white Attese 80 x 100 cm with a total of 23 slightly oblique cuts in two rows was sold for £ 8.4M including premium by Sotheby's on February 10, 2015. A red Attese 116 x 90 cm with a total of 14 cuts in two rows was sold for $ 16.4M including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2015.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's to introduce the Concetto Spaziale - Attese of the next sale.
1965 Twenty Four Slashes in a Canvas
2018 SOLD for £ 8.7M including premium
Under the Spazialismo wording Lucio Fontana explores as early as 1947 a resolutely minimalist abstract art, neither really painting nor really sculpture, which will lead him to state that he has discovered the cosmic dimension, an artistic representation of the infinity. The more or less large hollows in the supporting structure invite the observer to imagine the beyond.
From 1960 he lacerated with his cutter the canvases coated with a monochrome water paint. This is not a perforation because the sharpness of the gesture does not remove material. It is a gate that will open to mystic knowledge. He titled Concetto spaziale - Attese (Space concept - expectation) this important series which he will execute in hundreds of units with various colors until his death in 1968.
The action of the knife becomes a reflex that allows longer, more straight and tighter slashes, always vertical or slightly leaning. His skill reaches its peak in 1965. The rest of the discussion here below only refers to Attese made on that year.
A red 116 x 90 cm Attese with 14 cuts on two rows was sold for $ 16.4M including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2015. Another red 65 x 200 cm with 24 cuts in one row was sold for $ 16M including premium by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015. These configurations have not been exceeded by the artist and are probably some technological limitations before risking a damage to the canvas.
White is the symbol of purity. A white Attese 80 x 100 cm with 23 cuts in two rows was sold for £ 8.4M including premium by Sotheby's on February 10, 2015.
On March 6 in London, Christie's sells a maximum sized Attese with 24 cuts in a single row, lot 17 estimated £ 8M.
This work has some unique features. The matte white painted canvas is inserted into a black lacquered wood frame 68 x 203 x 5.5 cm which also includes an oblique bar. The glossy lacquer adds to the multidimensional illusion by reflecting the ambient room in the spirit of Pistoletto's mirror paintings.
Fontana commented his best works with an autograph inscription on the back side. He wrote about this one "Yesterday Tro-tro Klein visited me". Tro-tro is Klein's widow and Uecker's sister. Fontana has made a unique synthesis between his spatialism and the Zero Group's research on the expressive power of white monochromes.
From 1960 he lacerated with his cutter the canvases coated with a monochrome water paint. This is not a perforation because the sharpness of the gesture does not remove material. It is a gate that will open to mystic knowledge. He titled Concetto spaziale - Attese (Space concept - expectation) this important series which he will execute in hundreds of units with various colors until his death in 1968.
The action of the knife becomes a reflex that allows longer, more straight and tighter slashes, always vertical or slightly leaning. His skill reaches its peak in 1965. The rest of the discussion here below only refers to Attese made on that year.
A red 116 x 90 cm Attese with 14 cuts on two rows was sold for $ 16.4M including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2015. Another red 65 x 200 cm with 24 cuts in one row was sold for $ 16M including premium by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015. These configurations have not been exceeded by the artist and are probably some technological limitations before risking a damage to the canvas.
White is the symbol of purity. A white Attese 80 x 100 cm with 23 cuts in two rows was sold for £ 8.4M including premium by Sotheby's on February 10, 2015.
On March 6 in London, Christie's sells a maximum sized Attese with 24 cuts in a single row, lot 17 estimated £ 8M.
This work has some unique features. The matte white painted canvas is inserted into a black lacquered wood frame 68 x 203 x 5.5 cm which also includes an oblique bar. The glossy lacquer adds to the multidimensional illusion by reflecting the ambient room in the spirit of Pistoletto's mirror paintings.
Fontana commented his best works with an autograph inscription on the back side. He wrote about this one "Yesterday Tro-tro Klein visited me". Tro-tro is Klein's widow and Uecker's sister. Fontana has made a unique synthesis between his spatialism and the Zero Group's research on the expressive power of white monochromes.
1965 Expectations for the Cosmos
2015 SOLD for £ 8.4M including premium
Lucio Fontana was a sculptor who eventually achieved the feat of evoking space while using flat surfaces. The generic title he gave to much of his post war work, Concetto Spaziale, marks this continuous quest.
The subgroup Concetto Spaziale - Attese is the most prolific and most popular in his art. In 1965, Fontana goes indeed beyond minimalism by lacerating with his razor strictly monochromatic canvases, including the most pristine white.
His gesture joined the action painting but the absolute purity of the incision and the skilful arrangement of cuts in the surface of the fabric make these Attese a unique medium in the history of art.
Fontana expresses by his cuts the promise to perceive the cosmic infinity through the canvas, in a more easily understandable way for the observer than the abstract paintings by Mondrian. Attese means Expectations.
A Concetto Spaziale - Attese 80 x 100 cm executed in 1965 in water-color white paint is estimated £ 5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 10, lot 8.
With 23 cuts spread in two rows, it is the most complex realization of the series. Fontana was aware that the success of this specimen was great, and he used it for the very exceptional photographic report in which he unveiled the mechanism of his creative act.
The subgroup Concetto Spaziale - Attese is the most prolific and most popular in his art. In 1965, Fontana goes indeed beyond minimalism by lacerating with his razor strictly monochromatic canvases, including the most pristine white.
His gesture joined the action painting but the absolute purity of the incision and the skilful arrangement of cuts in the surface of the fabric make these Attese a unique medium in the history of art.
Fontana expresses by his cuts the promise to perceive the cosmic infinity through the canvas, in a more easily understandable way for the observer than the abstract paintings by Mondrian. Attese means Expectations.
A Concetto Spaziale - Attese 80 x 100 cm executed in 1965 in water-color white paint is estimated £ 5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 10, lot 8.
With 23 cuts spread in two rows, it is the most complex realization of the series. Fontana was aware that the success of this specimen was great, and he used it for the very exceptional photographic report in which he unveiled the mechanism of his creative act.
2001 Him Again !
2016 SOLD for $ 17.2M including premium
Maurizio Cattelan has no lack of humor when he shows his statuettes in unlikely situations. The public enjoys his child-sized self-portraits. He is also a social activist, fervently denouncing the hypocrisies.
His mockery of Catholicism comes in the following of the crucified frogs of Kippenberger. In 1999, he exhibited a life-size figure of Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite. The title, La Nona Ora, is a direct reference to the theology of Christ's death.
His most provocative work is Him, edited in 2001 in three units plus an artist's proof in wax, human hair, suit, polyester and pigments.
The kneeling character in a position of prayer has the size of a child but wears the gray suit of an adult in the outdated fashion of the 1930s. It is displayed for being at first viewed from behind. When reaching the front side, we recognize the figure of Hitler with his signature forelock and mustache. The viewer who had been tempted to laugh is now caught with the memory of the horrors of Nazism, which remains for many a taboo subject despite so many years.
The statements made by Cattelan unambiguously confirm that Him is an alert and not an apology. The attitude of this small Hitler looking like a penitent of Canossa does not eliminate the danger of racism and totalitarianism. For 15 years, Him has been widely viewed and discussed. The success of an exhibition in 2013 in the former Warsaw ghetto further indicates that this work must be perceived as a poignant request for peace.
The artist's proof is estimated $ 10M, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 8, lot 39 A. The essay of the catalog is significantly signed by a rabbi. The video shared by Christie's follows the correct way to show the work to reveal only at the ultimate moment the unsustainable and yet terribly current message.
His mockery of Catholicism comes in the following of the crucified frogs of Kippenberger. In 1999, he exhibited a life-size figure of Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite. The title, La Nona Ora, is a direct reference to the theology of Christ's death.
His most provocative work is Him, edited in 2001 in three units plus an artist's proof in wax, human hair, suit, polyester and pigments.
The kneeling character in a position of prayer has the size of a child but wears the gray suit of an adult in the outdated fashion of the 1930s. It is displayed for being at first viewed from behind. When reaching the front side, we recognize the figure of Hitler with his signature forelock and mustache. The viewer who had been tempted to laugh is now caught with the memory of the horrors of Nazism, which remains for many a taboo subject despite so many years.
The statements made by Cattelan unambiguously confirm that Him is an alert and not an apology. The attitude of this small Hitler looking like a penitent of Canossa does not eliminate the danger of racism and totalitarianism. For 15 years, Him has been widely viewed and discussed. The success of an exhibition in 2013 in the former Warsaw ghetto further indicates that this work must be perceived as a poignant request for peace.
The artist's proof is estimated $ 10M, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 8, lot 39 A. The essay of the catalog is significantly signed by a rabbi. The video shared by Christie's follows the correct way to show the work to reveal only at the ultimate moment the unsustainable and yet terribly current message.
