Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan is part of Phaidon's Contemporary Artists series, a selection of authoritative and extensively illustrated studies of today's most important artists. Each title offers a comprehensive survey of an individual artist's work and a range of art writing contributed by an international spectrum of authors, all leading figures in their fields, from art history and criticism to philosophy, cultural theory and fiction. Each study provides incisive analysis and multiple perspectives on contemporary art and its inspiration. These are essential source books for all concerned with art today.

Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960) is among the best-known Italian artists to have emerged internationally in the 1990s. Cattelan's work mocks art history (his giant, Disneyland-style 'Pablo Picasso' welcomed visitors at New York's Museum of Modern Art, 1998); monumentality (his granite plaque commemorating all the England football team losses, London, 1999); and nationalism (his rug, based on the Bel Paese cheese wrapper map of Italy, was placed to be trampled on by visitors at a major show of new Italian art in 1994). His work has been featured in the world's most important venues and exhibitions.