Ohne Titel (Skelett-Vase). 2000.
Object. Synthetic resin cast and polyester.
One of 3 copies. Height: ca. 36 cm (14,1 in). [KP].

PROVENANCE: Private collection California.

EXHIBITION: skulls. Bilder im Angesicht des Todes, Schönewald Fine Arts, Krefeld 30 January - 27 March, 2005, p. 95, color illu. on p. 66 (different copyan).

Maurizio Cattelan, one of today's best paid object- and installation artists, was bornin the Italian town of Padua in 1960. He never had any education in arts, instead he made ends meet with odd jobs, for instance at the morgue and in a souvenir shop at a monastery. In his twenties Maurizio Cattelan began first artistic activities, initially in Forlì, asof 1990 in Milan and asof 1993 in New York City. He soon made a name for himself with funny,grotesque and disrespectful installations, objectsand happenings. When the"Neo-Dadaist" Cattelan, whose creation follows the art of Marcel Duchamp, had his first solo show in 1989 and made it a subversive event: Instead of proudly presenting his works, the artist put up a sign on the closed door saying "Torno subito" (be back soon).

Time and again Maurizio Cattelan's oeuvre touches issues of life and death, often with a black sense of humor that lets laughter freeze. While the beginning of life is marked by the work"Spermini", in which miniature maskswith the artist's face are arrangedon a wall, the "Skeleton Vase" is occupied with the end of the cycle of life. This skeleton vaseoffered here lives on its contrast between the mere bone aesthetic and the colorful decorationin form of plastic flowers. The bone manboldly crosses his arms and looks right at the observer. In this context the skeleton vase is a both witty and eloquent "memento mori".

Daimler Contemporary, Berlin