Art and Anti-Art: Maurizio Cattelan Flips the Bird

This fall, Maurizio Cattelan will take New York, and probably America, by storm when his retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum opens in early November.

If you aren't yet familiar with the artist, whose work includes "The Ninth Hour", a life-like sculpture of Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite, among other satiric, comic and bizarre manifestations of Cattelan's provocative,  renegade sensibility, you will soon.

Below, a teaser: "The Ballad of Trotsky" a sculpture by the artist. He also created a monumental sculpture of a hand "flipping the bird" positioned at the Italian Stock Market. Madonn'....

The Ballad of Trotsky by Maurizio Cattelan

"Il Dito Medio"(Middle Finger) -- (or is it a vandalized black shirt salute?)

at the Milan Stock Exchange by Maurizio Cattelan

NY Times T Magazine interview here

The Guardian Interview here