Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim, New York

Artist Maurizio Cattelan is a notorious provocateur, best known for controversial sculptures like La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour) - his effigy of Pope John Paul II pole-axed by a meteorite - and a site specific work in Milan, for which he hung up life-sized models of children by their necks from a tree. The Italian may have just announced his 'retirement', yet he is still up to his old tricks. For 'Maurizio Cattelan: All', his current retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York, Cattelan has strung up his entire oeuvre on a series of ropes, so that it dangles from the museum's rotunda as if hanging from the gallows.
It's a fitting end to a career that seems to have long revolved around death. In fact, before he even became an artist, he worked in a morgue. But mortality aside, the satirist's references are wide ranging, encompassing everything from pop culture and history, to religion - a diversity made all the more apparent in the giant tangled mass in the Guggenheim.
Filling the void of the Frank Lloyd Wright spiral, the 128 works defy chronology, with trademark Cattelan irreverence. As curator Nancy Spector puts it, 'the installation lampoons the idea of comprehensiveness'. There's also a good dose of self-mockery to his act of literal 'career suicide', something that has always pervaded his work. Look closely and among the pieces you'll spot that giant portrait of the artist from 1995, in which he is seen lying on his back, waving his limbs in the air like an eager-to-please dog.
But while 'Maurizio Cattelan: All' is said to be the last show for the Padua-born artist, don't expect him to slip into obscurity any time soon. The exhibition also marks the launch of the fourth issue of Toilet Paper, his ongoing magazine series, produced in collaboration with fashion photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari.
Launched in January 2010 and made up solely of surreal and ambiguous images, Toilet Paper is a direct reference to the disposable nature of publishing. In Cattelan's words: 'Sooner or later all magazines end up in the toilet.' The aesthetic combines high production values with unsettling narratives - often of a violent or sexual nature - and a palpable sense of menace.
Ferrari, who in 2006 created art magazine Le Dictateur, describes the collaboration as a 'mental outburst of shared ideas'. The result is a fascinating collection of visual tableaux that confuse, compel and shock, as well as capturing a kind of edge-of-the-diving-board intensity. Gracing the pages of issue four are everything from a man wearing giant fish heads as shoes, to a female figure covered in clothes pegs.
Watch a short film accompanying the latest issue of Toilet Paper
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
In almost every image of Toilet Paper it feels as if something is on the point of happening. But as with everything Cattelan touches, you never know quite what. And, in spite of his deathly stunt at the Guggenheim, it serves as a potent reminder that you shouldn't write his epitaph just yet.
Nearly 130 of his works fill the Frank Lloyd Wright spiral; Courtesy of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Among the works on show is 'La Rivoluzione siamo noi' from 2000
'Him' by Maurizio Cattelan, 2001; Courtesy of the artist
'Mini Me' by Maurizio Cattelan, 1999; Courtesy of the artist
'L.O.V.E.' by Maurizio Cattelan, 2010
'La Nona Ora' by Maurizio Cattelan, 1999; Courtesy of the artist
'Untitled' by Maurizio Cattelan, 2001; Courtesy of the artist
Maurizio Cattelan
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Kitchen Trends 2026: luminosity, colour, and unexpected materiality
These are kitchen trends shaping interior design in 2026, from collaborative kitchens to warm luminosity
-
A gallery in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales showcases work inspired by nature
Thorns Gallery opens in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, with founders Jonathan Reed and Graeme Black aiming to showcase artworks inspired by the natural world
-
The dynamic young gallerists reinvigorating America's art scene
'Hugging has replaced air kissing' in this new wave of galleries with craft and community at their core
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of society
A new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
‘Her pictures looked like pictures everybody knew were the truth’: Diane Arbus at the Armory
Matthieu Humery curates more than 400 of Arbus’ photographs at New York’s Park Avenue Armory – every picture she was known to have printed
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscape
Artist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week
It was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this week
This week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, Divers
Geordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took place
Marc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture