Arts & Culture >> Visual Arts

Two More Days to See It “All”

by ilana

Maurizio Cattelan

Don’t know yet what you’re doing this weekend? I’ll tell you: Italian artist and prankster provocateur Maurizio Cattelan‘s “All” retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum will be showing for two more days (through 1/22) and you should go. One of the museum’s most buzzed about exhibitions in years, this unprecedented show features 128 pieces from 21 years of work–all hanging from the Guggenheim’s iconic rounded ceiling. That’s right. 128 sculptures, installations and photos have been suspended from a complex nest of cables and strings, lowered into the rotunda at varying heights. As you make your way up the spiraling levels of the museum, the retrospective’s contents are revealed in new ways, although that doesn’t necessarily make them more understandable. I recommend doing some brief reading on this controversial artist before attending the exhibit to better appreciate the chaos of objects that seem to have exploded from the ceiling. The intentionally decontextualized nature of the show is disorienting, but does also allow viewers to project their own interpretations and opinions on what’s before them. There’s no shortage of eye-catching material here, but what one attendee may find cute (taxidermied dogs and horses, anyone?) the next may find disturbing–and it’s fun to compare notes. Cattelan is known for his ambivalence about his place and purpose in the art world, his preoccupation with the notion of failure, and the status of “rebel” he has come to embody; this retrospective reflects all those things. Through “All,” Cattelan may have been objecting to the task of neatly cataloging an artist’s entire body of work, but the busy, messy, comprehensive protest he left us with is still fascinating. NB: While you’re there, don’t overlook the annex galleries throughout the building for gems from Kandinsky, Picasso, Cézanne, and more.

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