Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan has been a force of satire and provocativeness for the past few decades in the art world. He’s turned heads with sculptures of Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite, a praying Hitler in a former Warsaw Ghetto, and a taxidermied squirrel moments after suicide by self-inflicted gunshot. A new documentary, “Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back,” explores the life of the controversial artist.
The thrust of the film is found in this quote: “I think he’s probably one of the greatest artists that we have today,” says gallerist Adam Lindemann. “But he could also be the worst. It’s going to be one or the other. “It’s not going to fall in the middle.”
Several other quotes at the end of the trailer offer more of the artist, scoffed at by some critics and viewers and wholly embraced by others.
“He doesn’t make art … he makes tendentious tchotchkes,” the New Yorker says.
” … depraved and pointless … ,” says The Guardian.
“My genital herpes flared up right after I saw it …,” John W. says.
Watch the film’s trailer below. The film is being screened in a few theaters across the country. See the full line-up here.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYkhp8Bn720&w=600&h=315]
Ron Mueck The exhibition “Reshaped Reality: 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Sculpture” has currently taken over at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taiwan, with the likes of Patricia Piccinini, Ron Mueck, and several others. The survey of hyperrealistic figurative work features both larger-than-life and distorted takes on the human form. The exhibition runs through Sept. 22 at the space.
Masayoshi Hanawa’s intricate ceramic and resin creatures are pulled from the artist’s internal mythology. His creations are filled with mosaic-like detail, each corner of a monster a meticulously crafted and vibrant pattern.