Category: Artist
Nationality: Italian
Last Year: 68
Maurizio Cattelan knows how to goad the mass media and popular imagination: waxwork dummies of Pope John Paul II felled by a meteorite and Hitler kneeling in prayer are two standouts. Similarly, it was hard during 2008 not to notice his taxidermic horse, Untitled (2007), its head seemingly buried in the wall from which it was hung, the highlight of the New Museum’s show After Nature and now prominent in Pinault’s Dogana, in Venice. If nothing else, Cattelan’s works tend to become ubiquitous from constant exhibition and a doting media. It’s been a quieter 2009, however, although the Paduan artist must have been amused to be awarded the Rome Quadrennial’s career achievement prize back in March. Look out for a major solo show at the Menil Collection, Houston, in February.