In my
2025-2026 school year plan, I decided that our
April artist would be
Maurizio Cattelan. (Here is the
complete list of all the artists we've learned about so far.) Now on to some resources and my planning notes:
Maurizio Cattelan
1960 -
Unique in that this is the first artist that we have done by student demand! They became intrigued by his work when Comedian was in the news.
I think our plan of attack for Cattelan is to choose one piece of art to study each time and look at what its message might be (symbolism, satire).
some possibilities:
Oblomov Foundation Scholarship (1992)
Working Is a Bad Job (1993)
Love Lasts Forever (1997)
A Perfect Day (1999)
Mother (1999)
Not Afraid of Love (2000)
The Wrong Gallery (2002)
America (2016)
Comedian (2019)
the famous Sotheby’s auction was in 2024
I also think that it would lay a foundation for Maurizio Cattelan's work if we learn about Marcel Duchamp. I have resources about Duchamp in
Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn Kohl
(available at Internet Archive)
Vincent's Starry Night by Michael Bird
Encyclopedia of Artists, vol. 2
also
Maurizio Cattelan
Wikipedia page
Maurizio Cattelan: Beware of Yourself by Maurizio Cattelan
2026
Maurizio Cattelan: All by Nancy Spector
2016
So, a Banana Walks into an Art Fair
frieze.com
Maurizio Cattelan: Houdini of the Art World
"Modern Art Is Rubbish" podcast notes
Maurizio Cattelan
domusweb.it
Maurizio Cattelan, Naughty as Ever, Plays Games and Tours the Whitney
The New York Times - Apr 20, 2017
Maurizio Cattelan: ‘Art saved me from a miserable life’
The Observer - Jun 11, 2025
Cattelan's work for the Holy See pavilion at the 2024 Vienna Biennale
A lot of this will take the form of us looking at the artwork during Snack and having a discussion about what we think the artist is trying to say.
I've yet to figure out any art inspired by him that we can make on our own!
week of Apr 13:
Mon
read "The Bremen Town-Musicians" from Favourite Grimm's Tales illustrated by Anastasiya Archipova (p.143)
act out story with our collection of wooden figures:
tree, house, donkey, dog, cat, rooster, robber, dining room table!
look at and discuss Love Lasts Forever (1997)
use this to kick off our new Philosophy topic, Love
RNS - Why is this piece called Love Lasts Forever?
CB - They're working together to get food because they're all hungry. That's love, when it's teamwork.
AAR - They died but they're still together. That's the forever part. They didn't split up, they stayed together in that house.
EF -
They are all friends. They all stayed in the house together; it's their home now. They are all friends. That's a kind of love. You can see it in their skeletons. They are still friends, even when they died.
RNS - Why did he choose to have them in this position? It could have been four animal skeletons standing side by side -- donkey, dog, cat, rooster -- and it would still be referencing Bremen-Town Musicians.
AAR - It's a tower, a strong tower.
RNS - Have you ever seen an animal skeleton before in real life? When is a skeleton just a skeleton and when it is symbolism?
Tue
discuss Oblomov Foundation Scholarship (1992)
explain the cultural reference to Oblomov
tie in with our SWI lesson on < they >
RNS - Thoughts?
FR - That's genius!
EO - I think I know why he called it the "Oblomov Scholarship Foundation." Because the artists don't have to worry about money. The man in the book called Oblomov did absolutely nothing and he was so wealthy he didn't have to worry about money.
CB - I think it's because he worked hard to get it going and then it failed. So then he took the money because of how hard he worked. And then he went on vacation.
RNS - Do you think when he conceptualized it that he meant to take the money?
AAR - I feel like he meant to do it at first, but then he backed down and basically stole the money. Something went wrong and he thought, these artists, I don't like them.
FR - It's a scam but it's not a bad scam. It's half a scam.
RNS - We are all happy to give a scholarship to help someone else but it feels like cheating if we give the scholarship to ourself. But how is it actually different? Maybe he's poking fun at that idea.
FR - Technically he didn't break the rules. He's an artist. He IS an artist who isn't going to work for a year.
Thu
look at and discuss Working Is a Bad Job (1993)
45th Venice Biennale
RNS - Does this count as art?
AAR - Kindof. I'm not sure. Because this is just an ad. Some of his things I do count, but this... he didn't even make it. Somebody else made it. He basically cheated.
Z - Yes. It is in his space; they gave him that space. Anything in that space is his art.
RNS - You said "just an ad." Presumably they spent a lot of time designing the ad. Why is the ad not art?
AAR - I guess the ad in a way is art. But he kindof stole it in a way. The ad can have some art in it. But I just don't think it counts as his art.
RNS - We know he likes to poke fun at things. The title is maybe a way to get into his head. Why it is that only the very best artists get invited to the Vienna Biennale, but a magazine ad is just seen as nothing? What really is the difference between an ad and art?
How many people think he is saying a perfume ad shouldn't be minimized? [ two ]
How many people think he could be saying, you can't make me do art if I don't want to? [ one ]
EO - I think it's both. You can't force somebody to do art if they don't want to. Also, those ads are a lot of work and people act like they're nothing. People skip over ads all the time; almost nobody watches them. And then you also can't really make somebody do art if they're like no, I'm not going to do that. They're both really good points so I don't know. I like them both a lot.
RNS - A skeleton becomes art when it means something. We have been saying something is art if there's intention behind it, and the artist is making you think about something.
EO - If it has one of those two things -- or both -- it's art.
Z - Like EO was saying about the ads, I like to listen on the radio to all of the Grainger ads and stuff, and I was listening to music with my aunt a few months ago and she was like please skip the ads. I don't know why people skip them.
RNS - Well, no one skipped over that ad!
AAR - The people who made that ad probably feel very important. To be displayed in one of the most important exhibits.
EO - I wonder if they got more customers??
week of Apr 20:
Mon
Thu
week of Apr 27:
Mon
Tue
Thu
look at and discuss Untitled ("A Perfect Day," 1999)
what does it mean?
surprisingly, a student in the class has experienced being duct taped to the back of a door! I had absolutely no idea until she mentioned it!
this led to a great discussion: what is the difference between her and her brother doing this thing just for fun, and what Cattelan did? (she was taken down after half an hour and experienced no ill effects)
RNS - Are they both art? Are they both not art? Is one art and not the other; if so, why?
EO - One of them is art. I think he was like, I'm calling this art but I'm not going to tell anybody what it means, so people can have their own ideas about it and all of them are valid. That way it is their choice, not just what he says.
AR - It is art. He was making it in a museum.
CB - We were just bored -- it was summer break and we didn't have anything to do -- but he was going for actual art.
FR - There was a purpose to what he was doing.
CB - But we were just bored and my parents were about to throw away all of this duct tape.
EO - It's a form of rebellion. Because he's saying, do you think this is art? Is it still art even if some poeple would say that it's not? I think a lot of people don't like it. And I think that's the point. I think he's trying to make people see if there's really a point for being mad about a lot of things. Is there a point to being mad about this thing? Is it actually worth your attention and energy? Or is it a pointless thing that for some reason you're mad about.
AAR - It's not art. He's torturing that man I think. A car crash isn't art.
LL - If one thing that is practically the same is NOT art, then the other one shouldn't be. What she did wasn't art. So he wasn't doing art.
CB - Anything that you can do can be art.
I feel like my brother was doing something with the tape behind me but I don't know what it was. I wasn't the artist. I was the art. We would have to ask him.
Z - This got said a while ago, that a car crash isn't art. If you put a car crash in a painting, in a sculpture, in a movie, in a picture... then is it art?
CR - I personally think yes. A normal piece of paper laying on the floor isn't art, but you like put it in a frame...
EO - A car crash in a picture isn't art. Because earlier you said the same thing wasn't art. Traditionally it would be called art but logically if a person says "that isn't art" but then they see it again in a different form, then does that still not count as art? Now I'm getting confused.
LL - I think that as long as it's hand made -- like a craft or a painting or drawing or even photography or music -- hand made, made by a human, and it has intention I think that's art.
CB - If you look at that shelf with the pile of yarn, do you think that's art? A plain ball of white yarn. I don't think it is. But if you take that and you knit a horse, then it's art.
week of May 4:
Mon
look at and discuss Not Afraid of Love (2000)
tie in with our Philosophy discussion of Love
this piece of art is difficult to interpret, so we began in a roundabout way:
what if this piece was called "Afraid of Love"? what symbolism do you see?
then we worked up to: why is it called "Not Afraid of Love?"
they felt that hiding behind the sheet symbolized being hurt in the past, the feet and trunk sticking out represent being willing to try again (sticking a toe in) but yet unsure (trunk tip facing toward him instead of away) and the fact that he's left the jungle to come stand in the middle of the museum means that he is willing to go for it!
why did he choose the elephant? elephants symbolize enduring love, there's a tension between his fragility and his size, he is scared but he's enormous (the sculpture would be less effective if it was a cat)
I keep finding lovely new articles about Maurizio Cattelan!
A Dirty Mirror in the House of God: On Maurizio Cattelan’s Sunday and November
elephant.art - May 12, 2024
Maurizio Cattelan, unleashed
artbasel.com - May 14, 2025
Tue
the upcoming Venice Biennale is once again in the news!
Venice Biennale Jury Resigns Amid Tension Over Awards Ban
Apr 30, 2026
now the awards will be voted on by the audience members
so, will this reduce the value of the "prestigious Golden Lion"? do you have to be trained in art to recognize good art? or is art truly open to everybody and all of the art viewers' opinions carry equal weight?
Wed
Thu
learn about Marcel Duchamp and his ideas
read #54 "Spinning a Story: Marcel Duchamp"
from
Vincent's Starry Night by Michael Bird, p.249
Rue de Bicyclette, 1913
"Duchamp decided that the really essential thing about being an artist was having interesting ideas that make people see things differently."
"'I'm the artist, not you,' thought Duchamp. 'I'm the one who decides what is art.'"
read "Marcel Duchamp"
from
Encyclopedia of Artists, volume 2, p.50
Fountain, 1917
"He created an artwork out of ordinary materials (in this case a bicycle wheel and a stool); only the idea to do it was his own."
"'Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance,' Duchamp contended. 'He chose it.'"
week of May 25:
Mon
look at Cattelan's work; what are some common themes you see?
read quotes from Maurizio Cattelan
"Making exhibitions was my school."
"What I do is perhaps difficult to understand. It does not come with a single message or a single interpretation. Certainly, not giving a precise definition to the work means allowing it to live longer."
"For me, art is empty, transparent: it is a device to set in motion interpretations that belong to the viewers. In the end they do the artists’ work."
look at and discuss America (2016)
Thu
final thoughts!?
because the Venice Biennale is happening right now, I cannot resist reading articles about it (having never known about nor given it a thought before)
so thank you to Maurizio Cattelan! if I hadn't had to look up
Working Is a Bad Job (1993), I never would have gone down this little rabbit hole
but here we are
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