- 128
Maurizio Cattelan
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
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Description
- Maurizio Cattelan
- Super Us
- ink on acetate, in fifty-one parts
- each: 28 by 21.5cm.; 11 by 8 1/2 in.
- Executed in 1999.
Provenance
Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
Literature
Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Cattelan: All, 2011-12, p. 192, no. 17, illustration of another example from the series
Condition
Colour:
The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although fails to fully convey the transparency of each acetate sheet.
Condition:
This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals evidence of minor handling and pinholes to each acetate sheet.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
Made up of fifty-one drawings of Cattelan by police sketch artists, which were executed after physical descriptions by the artist’s friends and relatives, Super Us (NY) epitomises several of Cattelan’s favoured areas of investigation such as the unreliability of perception, dichotomised sets of relationships (criminal/authority, good/evil), ironic narratives and self-portraiture.
Displayed as a random configuration of transparent sheets, dozens of blank stares evoke a ‘most-wanted’ post office bulletin board to accentuat the forensic aesthetic of Super Us. However, despite the police sketches’ traditional endeavour to identify felons and uncover the truth, in this fragmented, kaleidoscopic portrait all elements appear comically disparate except for a few recurrent features, thus reducing the artist to a handful of grotesque cartoon-like characteristics.
In Jacques Derrida’s post-structuralist critical method known as deconstruction, binary oppositions are constructed in such a way that one of the elements in the pair always appears to be superior whilst the other is always undermined and marginalised. Deconstruction reveals the fictitious foundations of these dichotomies and therefore weakens them, as it exposes not only how these ambivalences are unnatural and arbitrary, but also how the hierarchy within each pair and the strict distinction of the two elements is untenable. Defined by each other, both parts of the pair are interdependent and inextricable. In a very Derridean way, inherent not only to Super Us but underlining Cattelan’s entire artistic practice, he interrogates the groundings of standard polarizations; in this case good versus bad, and scientific truth versus the subjectivity of perception.
However, despite the association with Cattelan’s recurring theme of the criminal persona, the impetus for Super Us stems more from “visualizing the idea of the self. That piece was really about how people around you perceive you in different ways than how you really are” (The artist in conversation with Nancy Spector in: Francesco Bonami et al., Maurizio Cattelan, London 2000, p. 32). The title itself is a satirical play on Freud’s concept of the super-ego, one of the three components of the psychic apparatus along with the id and the ego, and the one which comprises the internalisation of societal rules, values and norms. Instead of being unified, the idea of the self is here shown as fragmented and layered, as Cattelan’s identity varies according to the impression the ‘describing’ acquaintance has of him.
Cattelan’s work exists in the interstitial zones between opposites, the aspect of non-presence between conceptual shortcuts, the unspoken gaps, the exclusion. With trademark irreverence, engagement with contemporary society’s ambiguity and unclassifiable imagery, Super Us can be singled-out as a masterpiece of subversion, brilliantly encompassing and embodying all of the artist’s cherished paradoxes and disturbing humour present within Cattelan’s overarching and multifaceted practice.
Displayed as a random configuration of transparent sheets, dozens of blank stares evoke a ‘most-wanted’ post office bulletin board to accentuat the forensic aesthetic of Super Us. However, despite the police sketches’ traditional endeavour to identify felons and uncover the truth, in this fragmented, kaleidoscopic portrait all elements appear comically disparate except for a few recurrent features, thus reducing the artist to a handful of grotesque cartoon-like characteristics.
In Jacques Derrida’s post-structuralist critical method known as deconstruction, binary oppositions are constructed in such a way that one of the elements in the pair always appears to be superior whilst the other is always undermined and marginalised. Deconstruction reveals the fictitious foundations of these dichotomies and therefore weakens them, as it exposes not only how these ambivalences are unnatural and arbitrary, but also how the hierarchy within each pair and the strict distinction of the two elements is untenable. Defined by each other, both parts of the pair are interdependent and inextricable. In a very Derridean way, inherent not only to Super Us but underlining Cattelan’s entire artistic practice, he interrogates the groundings of standard polarizations; in this case good versus bad, and scientific truth versus the subjectivity of perception.
However, despite the association with Cattelan’s recurring theme of the criminal persona, the impetus for Super Us stems more from “visualizing the idea of the self. That piece was really about how people around you perceive you in different ways than how you really are” (The artist in conversation with Nancy Spector in: Francesco Bonami et al., Maurizio Cattelan, London 2000, p. 32). The title itself is a satirical play on Freud’s concept of the super-ego, one of the three components of the psychic apparatus along with the id and the ego, and the one which comprises the internalisation of societal rules, values and norms. Instead of being unified, the idea of the self is here shown as fragmented and layered, as Cattelan’s identity varies according to the impression the ‘describing’ acquaintance has of him.
Cattelan’s work exists in the interstitial zones between opposites, the aspect of non-presence between conceptual shortcuts, the unspoken gaps, the exclusion. With trademark irreverence, engagement with contemporary society’s ambiguity and unclassifiable imagery, Super Us can be singled-out as a masterpiece of subversion, brilliantly encompassing and embodying all of the artist’s cherished paradoxes and disturbing humour present within Cattelan’s overarching and multifaceted practice.