Astute at business and Art, Maurizio Cattelan has created a strong demand for his edgy art. At Sotheby's Part I London contemporary sale at the end of June 2009, most lots sold near their low estimate except Maurizio Cattelan's Mini-Me Multiple, created in an edition of ten.
Estimated at £180,000 to £250,000, two phone bidders drove the auction price to an astonishing £493,000 in the London Auction for the Cattelan self-portrait.
Recently a Maurizio Cattelan Sculpture titled Him was sold for $10 million. Him is a spookily realistic depiction of Hitler kneeling in prayer. Among other things, it poses the question: if the Führer asked for absolution, would God forgive him?"
"Stefan Edlis, a Viennese-born Holocaust survivor and eminent American collector, is a proud owner an edition of the work."
“When people see this piece,” says Edlis, “they react with gasps, tears, disbelief. The impact is stunning. Politics aside, that is how you judge art.”
"Cattelan is represented by three prestigious dealers; Marian Goodman in New York, Massimo de Carlo in Milano; Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris and an influential art advisor, Philippe Segalot, but the artist hasn't had a show in a commercial gallery since 2002. “
"Cattelan seems delighted to make specific works for individual collectors, but patrons beware. Ben Brown, a London dealer, commissioned a portrait of his grandmother; Cattelan made a unique work called Betsy consisting of a life-like old lady jammed into a fridge."
"Peter Brant, a Connecticut-based newsprint magnate, commissioned a portrait of his wife, Stephanie Seymour; Cattelan created a bust in the style of a mounted moose head, which the art-world has nicknamed Trophy Wife." Cattelan shrewdly created Trophy Wife in an edition of three so other Collectors could own his Portrait of Stephanie Seymour.
François Pinault, an important Art Collector and owner of Christie's, asked the artist to "think about what he might make for him, Cattelan suggested a tombstone inscribed with the epitaph, Pourquoi Moi? Mr. Pinault’s family was initially too uncomfortable with the idea, but Cattelan persisted and the family recently acquiesced."
No comments :
Post a Comment