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Lot Essay
Extract from I Want to Be Famous - Strategies for Successful Living, Interview with Barbara Casavecchia, 1999
Casavecchia: When you presented your last project at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998), you stated that Picasso was 'the greatest magician and entertainer in twentieth-century artistic practice'. Funnily enough, a couple of years ago critic Jeff Rian used exactly the same words to describe you. Who, then, were you really parodying in the work (Untitled), with that big mask of the venerable old Pablo's face?
Cattelan: Well, I think Warhol really had the last word about that. It's difficult, as an artist, to admit you want to be famous. Being an artist has nothing to do with fame, it has to do with art, that intangible thing needing integrity. Nevertheless, I think one has to confess a desire to be famous, otherwise, one is not an artist. Art and fame are the expression of a desire to live forever, two things which are strictly interlinked.
(reproduced in F. Bonami, N. Spector and B. Vanderlinden, (eds.), Maurizio Cattelan, London 2000, p. 133).
Casavecchia: When you presented your last project at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998), you stated that Picasso was 'the greatest magician and entertainer in twentieth-century artistic practice'. Funnily enough, a couple of years ago critic Jeff Rian used exactly the same words to describe you. Who, then, were you really parodying in the work (Untitled), with that big mask of the venerable old Pablo's face?
Cattelan: Well, I think Warhol really had the last word about that. It's difficult, as an artist, to admit you want to be famous. Being an artist has nothing to do with fame, it has to do with art, that intangible thing needing integrity. Nevertheless, I think one has to confess a desire to be famous, otherwise, one is not an artist. Art and fame are the expression of a desire to live forever, two things which are strictly interlinked.
(reproduced in F. Bonami, N. Spector and B. Vanderlinden, (eds.), Maurizio Cattelan, London 2000, p. 133).