Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

A substantial part of Maurizio Cattelan’s oeuvre refers to childhood, either in topics and gestures. The analysis of a sample of his works shows that childhood refers to the real period of the artist’s life, but also to the metaphorical position of his generation in the context of art and cultural history. The study takes into consideration Cattelan’s statements in interviewes as well as the literature on his works by art critics and curators, but mainly relies on the description of his pieces of art. Data sources also include recent studies on consumer childlikeness and childlikeness in contemporary art. Finally, I argue that Cattelan’s oeuvre is a good case study of the paradigm of childlikeness in the ongoing western and westernized societies.