Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari - 20th Century & Contemporary Art: Online Auction New York Monday, July 17, 2023 | Phillips

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  • Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo built a strong rapport after collaborating for a W Magazine photoshoot. Cattelan, an established star of modern art, and Ferrari, a veteran of commercial photography, decided to continue working together, fusing elements from each of their backgrounds to create a genre-bending visual project they called TOILETPAPER. Published biannually since 2010, TOILETPAPER is an image-based magazine completely devoid of text. Each volume consists of roughly 20 full-page images left to speak for themselves. Drawing inspiration from the visual language of advertisements, elements of these images can be easily mistaken for old stock photographs or clippings from retro magazines. However, TOILETPAPER subverts this seemingly banal aesthetic, meticulously crafting absurd scenes from fragments of corporate advertising imagery. These works read as visual puzzles underscored by a strong sense of irony and with a multitude of interpretations.

     

    The present work prominently exemplifies the surrealist tones, vibrant colors and absurd subject matter that define TOILETPAPER’s aesthetic. One side of the folding screen depicts the torso of a man in a suit painting over the entirety of a globe aside from the continental United States. The other side shows two hands typing on a vintage typewriter with thimbles on every finger. Both images have been used for the magazine cover, with the globe side serving as the cover for the 12th edition, published February 2016, and the typewriter serving as the cover for the 9th edition, published May 2014. The divergence from normality that arises from TOILETPAPER’s distortion of corporate visual language seen in the present work opens the door to a plethora of geopolitical, social and economic readings of life in a modern, consumerist culture.

     

    After garnering attention and acclaim for their magazine, Cattelan and Ferrari brought the artistic vision of TOILETPAPER to a variety of other endeavors. From May to late-June 2012, an image from their magazine – a woman’s neatly painted yet seemingly detached fingers – was placed on the billboard next to the High Line in New York. The tenth and eleventh issues of TOILETPAPER were a collaborative effort between Cattelan and Ferrari and the famous luxury magazine, M Le magazine du Mond. In November of 2019, the duo created an image of a grumpy cat that would be used as the cover for the New York Times Magazine.

     

    Image/Artwork: © Toiletpaper Magazine

    A driving force behind Cattelan’s and Ferrari’s unorthodox approach to their art is a rebellion against what they felt were restrictive norms of the art world. As Ferrari explains, “We don’t want to be considered artists… We don’t give any importance to the classic way of presenting your work, or to the art market.”i Rather, the duo focuses more on the process of consumption of their works. Ambiguity and salience are key components of the TP oeuvre. As Cattelan puts it, “Because no alphabet is involved, images are a territory that everyone has the skills to explore, but at the same time no two people have the same sensations and experiences. It’s the reign of the subjective interpretation.”ii

     

    TOILETPAPER explores the scope of what Cattelan refers to as a “contemporary obsession with images”. Toying with the concept of manufactured desire that defines the present-day advertising and marketing fields, TOILETPAPER images, as many have noted, often appear to be advertisements without products. This in turn brings questions regarding the relationship between visuals and consumerism within contemporary society to the forefront of discussions surrounding the ethos of TOILETPAPER.

     

     

    i Pierpaolo Ferrari, quoted in Zoe Cooper, “Staging the surreal with Italian photographer and co-founder of Toiletpaper, Pierpaolo Ferrari,” Friends of Friends, online.

    ii Maurizio Cattelan, quoted in “Maurizio Cattelan: Show them Life,” The Talks, May 27, 2015, online.

    • Provenance

      Galerie Perrotin, New York
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

22

Untitled

varnish and UV color print on wood folding screen with brass and metal hardware
approximately 69 1/4 x 65 1/4 x 1 in. (175.9 x 165.7 x 2.5 cm)
installation dimensions variable

Executed in 2015, this work is number 2 from an edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$8,000 - 12,000 

Sold for $8,890

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20th Century & Contemporary Art: Online Auction

17 - 26 July 2023