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Lot Essay
The work is sold with a certificate signed by the artist.
Cattelan is the outlaw of contemporary art. He robs from other artists, raises funds from patrons which he squanders in other cities, erects false memorials in public buildings... He is the incorrigible bad boy of the art scene, both in Italy and abroad. It is only natural, then, that he should identify himself with Zorro.
In Zorro, the artist has mimicked the sword-cut signature of the eponymous hero of Spanish California. In his own dashing way, Cattelan is hinting at the hypocrisy of the art world, be it in the form of artists, patrons, critics or viewers. Zorro is very much a joke.
And as well as a joke, it is an insult, not least to the cultural importance of his own nation within the realm of contemporary art. For these slashes perfectly ape those of Lucio Fontana, the inventor of Spatialism and one of twentieth-century Italian art's greatest heroes and examples. Cattelan has deftly brought about a concise and even calligraphic union between a cerebral and pioneering artist and a pulp character, between 'High' and 'Low' art. With his customary élan, and a fair dose of cheek and iconoclasm, Cattelan is assaulting the tradition of conceptual art, and his own country's role in producing it. He is assaulting, with Robin Hood bravura, the artistic hierarchies that so many people take for granted. At the same time, this assault challenges us to appraise the legacy not only of Post-War greats like Fontana, but also their later imitators, not least Cattelan himself.
Cattelan is the outlaw of contemporary art. He robs from other artists, raises funds from patrons which he squanders in other cities, erects false memorials in public buildings... He is the incorrigible bad boy of the art scene, both in Italy and abroad. It is only natural, then, that he should identify himself with Zorro.
In Zorro, the artist has mimicked the sword-cut signature of the eponymous hero of Spanish California. In his own dashing way, Cattelan is hinting at the hypocrisy of the art world, be it in the form of artists, patrons, critics or viewers. Zorro is very much a joke.
And as well as a joke, it is an insult, not least to the cultural importance of his own nation within the realm of contemporary art. For these slashes perfectly ape those of Lucio Fontana, the inventor of Spatialism and one of twentieth-century Italian art's greatest heroes and examples. Cattelan has deftly brought about a concise and even calligraphic union between a cerebral and pioneering artist and a pulp character, between 'High' and 'Low' art. With his customary élan, and a fair dose of cheek and iconoclasm, Cattelan is assaulting the tradition of conceptual art, and his own country's role in producing it. He is assaulting, with Robin Hood bravura, the artistic hierarchies that so many people take for granted. At the same time, this assault challenges us to appraise the legacy not only of Post-War greats like Fontana, but also their later imitators, not least Cattelan himself.