Maurizio Cattelan - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Friday, October 17, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galleria Paolo Vitolo, Rome; Jane B. Holzer Collection

  • Literature

    Flash Art, no. 155 (Italian edition), April/May, 1990 (illustrated on the cover); Francesco Bonami, et al., Maurizio Cattelan, London, 2000, p. 73, (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Cattelan situates himself as the joker of the art world, and takes the idea of re-appropriation a step further as he employs the virtual idea of robbery, he steals images, ideas and makes his own events. In the present lot, Strategies, artist Maurizio Cattelan presents us with his image of a precarious structure threatening to collapse at any moment, this is Cattelan’s image of the art world as he viewed it. Upon his move to Milan in 1990 Cattelan was virtual alien to the contemporary art scene within Italy, as he outright refused any relationship with any publications, galleries and other such institutions or groups. It was this that triggered the making of Strategies as a critique of the contemporary art world and the mechanics involved in such a structure, Cattelan set to question the contemporary arts relevance to the rest of society through poking fun at it. Strategies is a literal house of cards composed entirely of leading Italian Contemporary art publication Flash Art, this was his first artwork to grasp the issues of the art world by the horns and developed itself into a reoccurring theme in his work.
      

368

Strategies

1990
Magazines, adhesive and metal supports.  
175.3 x 161.3 x 20.3 cm. (69 x 63 1/2 x 8 in).
This work is from an edition of three.

Estimate
£50,000 - 70,000 ‡♠

Sold for £61,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

18 Oct 2008, 7pm
London