The Meteor as Art – Maurizio Cattelan’s “Pope Struck by a Meteorite” Sells for $3 Million

August 14, 2007 at 1:29 pm · Comments

Maurizio Cattelan’s La Nona Oralso (1999)
Venice Biennalle Installation
wax, clothing, polyester resin with metallic powder, volcanic rock, carpet, glass

This critique is only for this particular art installation and not Maurizio Cattelan’s body of work which I like. I don’t normally write public negative reviews and I will reexamine what I have written at a later date to see if I was fair in my initial assessment or to see if my opinion has matured or mellowed. This is that re-examination.

On the surface level, this piece is humorous. It speaks of science versus religion. Science 1 : Religion 0. The meteor serves as a deus ex machina that asks Catholics to probe their relationship to the divine through the vehicle of irony. For the rest of us, non-Catholics, it can be read as a joke at their expense, or more generously, it is just a reminder of  how logic or physics flies against religion, literally in this case.

There is a quip that says, It’s only funny until someone gets hurt… then it’s hilarious! I was particularly offended by the fallout this art installation had on Anda Rottenberg, the Jewish gallery director who had to quit her job and probably go into temporary hiding as a consequence of all of the hate mail, angry phone calls, anti-semitism, the political turmoil and negative press that exhibiting this piece attracted. Modernity says that anything and everything is acceptable under the umbrella of free speech and artistic freedom, however, I question whether it is in good judgment to bash the icons of any of the world’s major religions, whether it be Muhammad or in this case the Pope. Strongly polarized feelings towards the Catholic church make it an easy target. It is with bated breath that the audience waits for the fallout. The art piece has come alive and anything can happen.

The use of the political effigy traditionally serves the purpose of a mob. And indeed, this piece successfully conjured up an ugly mob. Ugly mobs are only satisfied by a scapegoat; mobs want blood. In this case, it was Anda Rottenberg. The misery of one person pushed the joke a step further, to the point where it’s now hilarious. It was her bad luck for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Who cares what happens to one person.

Art still has tremendous power to move people. If you bring a negative element into the world, sometimes it will find its expression through an angry or retributive reaction. Was it worth it? When a work is auctioned off for $3 Million, the market answers with a resounding Yes! This is one level on which La Nona Oralso hits its mark.

-April 20, 2011

My original post:

Maurizio Cattelan’s “La Nona Oralso” (1999, translated as “The Ninth-Hour”), was auctioned off at Christie’s in May of 2001 for $886,000.

In 2006, it sold for $3 Million.

Also known as “Pope Struck by a Meteorite,” Cattelan defends his installation at the 2000 Venice Biennale with a glib statement,

“In the end it is only a piece of wax.”

Read the rest of this entry »

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Manfred Muller’s “Twilight and Yearning” beneath the Santa Monica Pier

October 9, 2006 at 9:54 pm · Comments

I though I would repost some art writing from my Echo in the Sense website here:

Much of 2004 was spent taking long walks along the Santa Monica pier and wallowing in a tide of inertia. I came upon this installation for the first time this January at a time when I very much needed a mental jog from the past.

"Cycle Olympic Boulevard: No 18" Painted Fabriano/Mixed Oil Color 27.5" x 24.5" framed, 2001 Entwer ein Museumsmonument, 1985 Palacio de Memoria, 2003

The boat sculpture/permanent installation in these photos is Manfred Muller’s "Twilight and Yearning." I had the opportunity to hear him lecture at Form Zero bookstore in 1994 and he mentioned the boats under the pier. He first proposed it to the Santa Monica City Council in 1992, but it still took several years for the city to greenlight his project. I still remember the gallery pieces I saw ten years ago at Form Zero. Each was about a foot high made of cardboard or felted paper; they were gatefolded and scored, duplexed with a contrasting color on one side, and shapes were cut out. Each one was like a present or a large banana leaf folded over on itself. He was working on a series of not quite assemblage pieces, a visual pun on figure and ground and enclosure and these had an architectural feel or a very tangible sense of being a part of a larger dialogue. These very much reminded me of the maquettes of sculptor Betty Gold and her process of arriving at her monumental public sculpture pieces: reduction from a very basic shape; she usually starts from a rectangle.  With some of Muller’s pieces, complexity is dependent on audience reference points; how personal and social memory weaves itself in relation to form. Sculpture magazine has a meaty critique of where his work is in the present. The USC Fischer Gallery has a catalogue page with photos from his recent exhibit there.

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Filed under: Art, Sculpture, Site-Specific Installation