Murizio Cattelan’s ALL at the Guggenheim is one of the best exhibits I’ve seen all year. I’ve experienced the gut wrenching melancholic beauty of Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty, the classic fearless definitive retrospective of Willem de Kooning, but it is Cattelan’s ALL that made me smile from the inside.
First, lets start with the big question, what is art? Do you subscribe to Warhol’s definition, “art is what [we] can get away with”? This could be too big and complicated concept and we will just end up in a semantics debate. Okay, maybe we should try a different approach. What is the function of art and can it change the world?
I saw ALL on opening weekend, without reading a single review or knowing what awaited me inside the Guggenheim. I walked in: initial impression, THIS IS AMAZING! Then I proceeded up the ramp for the curatorial statement. Thought: Oh YEAH! Cattelan is a GENIUS! The subsequent hour I spend with the exhibit did nothing to sway me from my initial impression. Ironically, I really didn’t need to spend an hour viewing the exhibit. I understood what Cattelan has so audaciously put forth from the first view that everything else is just frosting on top.
The art world likes to debate if Cattelan is really an artist, some calls him a prankster, some dismisses him all together, yet he is exhibited in our most respected institutions and fairs. Cattelan is a conceptual artist. His idea is the essence of his art, the presentation and execution is only ever in addition to. Through an irreverent sense of humor, our society’s most sacred notions are challenged and begged to be re-contextualized.
For the retrospective, Cattelan strung together 128 pieces of his work into a giant mobile of sorts and suspended it in the center of the Guggenheim, dangling down 6 stories from above, in effect, taking over the museum by occupying the core of it. The retrospective is titled ALL, rather fittingly, given that that is exactly what a retrospective is.
I love the exhibit for the following reasons:
1. The audacious presentation. Cattelan chose to cluster all of his work together in a giant “cluster-fuck,” declaring, in a not so subtle statement, that art cannot be viewed without context. Cattelan appears to be saying, “You want to see what I’ve made in my entire career? Well here it is, in one giant lump sum!”
We whip ourselves into a frenzy in setting the first criteria for GREAT ART: its timelessness, appreciated and loved despite all circumstances. Really? First of all, we never, repeat, never, view any art without some sort of context.
Cattelan’s work is satirical and ironic. The work is referential to politics, religion, contemporary art or current social issues. To view the work in a pure abstract way in a linear, standardized, retrospective fashion, such as the de Kooning show, would have been unfaithful and disingenuous.
In this giant mobile / cluster-fuck / you-can-have-it-all way, Cattelan challenges the notion of a retrospective and simultaneously creates a new piece out of his ouver. Make no mistake, Cattelan showed us a new piece by recycling and reusing everything he’s created in his career.
2. The title, ALL. I think that is rather succinct and perfect. Enough said.
3. Cattelan announces his retirement from the art world with the opening of the retrospective. Major career retrospectives are considered to be the pinnacle of any artist’s career, it is the cherry on top, yet it also invariably implies that all forth coming work will be less than what has come before it. Once you’ve reached the top of the arc, there is only one way to go. The retrospective ends up being a premature eulogy. To combine his retirement alongside with ALL, Cattelan frees himself from the scrutiny of the art world and ends his career with a bang!
To make ALL even more interesting, the attendance for the show is at an all time high, contrasted against the disdain of critics for it both in print and online.
Cattelan has just poked the art world in the eye, using one of the most highly respected institutions as his instrument, and challenges some of our sacred notions the art world hold so near and dear.
How can you not love Cattelan and his ALL?
Art should challenge and Cattelan did just that. Sometimes it takes a prankster to show us the light.
Related Posts:
Savage Beauty – Mute the Thinking Mind
Your life is a de Kooning
Misconception of Life as an Artist
The Artist is Present, Part 3
