Maurizio Cattelan ALL

Location: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
Duration: November 4, 2011 – January 22, 2012

From a curatorial standpoint, Maurizio Cattelan’s All at the Guggenheim Museum is a masterpiece. I bow down to Nancy Spector, curator of the show, who managed to pull off this novel and seemingly impossible task perfectly. Every piece, most life-size and together totaling over 50 works, hangs from the ceiling or from another piece above it. In addition to what would have been an enormous job to just get these things up there, every piece happens to also be perfectly placed so the observer has an unobstructed (unless intentionally obstructed) view of each work. Pieces even manage to converse with one another across this wall-less space. I laughed out loud when I came upon a bed containing two men fast asleep. The big billboard sign behind them reads: “Qualle sara la mia prossima donna?” (translating to “Who will be my next woman?”). Spector breathed new life into those pieces by creating a relationship between them.

This brings me to my second point: Cattelan’s work is funny, in a good way. It is difficult these days for art to make us laugh. The world of high art often requires a stern observation, but I found myself giggling all the way around the starkly empty spiral floors of the Guggenheim.  How can one not laugh at a Hitler down on his knees praying?  Or at two cowardly lions peaking from behind a beautiful doorway?  There is virtue in laughter, especially when it is not achieved through witty script forced upon a canvas or its substitute.

Lastly, the exhibit is beautiful. I encourage you to stand below the hoofs of the bottom-most piece, a chocolate-colored life-size horse hanging its head and tail as sullenly as they could go. Maybe you too would feel such melancholy if you were weighing down a life-time of work hanging from the ceiling of one of the most spectacular art spaces in New York City.