On the occasion of his retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, the protean and always playful Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan had a little chat with the late Frank Lloyd Wright. They got along splendidly, although, as Cattelan confided, “I don’t think he really likes my work.” What Cattelan did not tell Wright is that his sculptures of Adolf Hitler, Pope John Paul II, John F. Kennedy, and other startling subjects will be hanging, like salami in a butcher shop, from the ceiling of Wright’s world-famous rotunda.[#image: /photos/5891fff07caf41c472cb63a1]||||||
Maurizio Cattelan: Like many other people, the first time I visited the Guggenheim Museum I couldn’t help wondering where you got the idea of the rotunda from.
Frank Lloyd Wright: Why, I just shook the building out of my sleeves. The idea of the rotunda was to create a new form of union between visitor, painting, and architecture.
MC: But don’t the curve and the low ceilings create a limit for high sculptures or large paintings, for example?
FLW: If the paintings are too large, cut them in half!
MC: There has been for quite a long time now the tendency of building “neutral” contemporary art museums—white cubes. How do you feel about them?
FLW: I don’t think they matter, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think they’re for me and why should I be for them?
MC: Have you heard what I’m going to do in your museum?
FLW: Yes, I have.
MC: And what do you think? Too simple?
FLW: Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.
MC: So you don’t mind having the building occupied by someone who has been defined as the art world’s court jester?
FLW: The court jester always spoke what other courtiers never dared utter.
“Maurizio Cattelan: All” is on view from November 4 through January 22, 2012; guggenheim.org