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Maurizio Cattelan brings his most sacrilegious work to a new limited edition, hand-painted sculpture.
La Nona Ora is based on Maurizio's original 1999 installation piece that depicts Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite and pinned to a bright red carpet. The title references the ninth hour of Christ's crucifixion, when he cries out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" before dying on the cross.
The satirical work, which casts the most powerful figure in Catholicism as mortal and vulnerable, divided the art world and beyond. Most notably, forcing a museum director in Catholic Poland to resign.
Each resin edition arrives individually hand-painted and with a metal cross.
While Comedian (2019) – an ordinary banana duct-taped to a wall – has captured mainstream attention for years, it’s not the first time it seemed like Maurizio was playing a joke on the world. For example, L.O.V.E (2010), an 11m marble hand with four digits missing – leaving only a middle finger outside the Italian Stock Exchange in Milan. Is it a response to the fascist history of the square, or the 2008 financial crisis? Is it a postmodern comment on the emptiness of gestures, or just a really good joke? Any single answer would be unsatisfactory. To Maurizio, “if something can be reduced to one clear concept, it is as sure as hell artistically dead.” Only one thing unifies this sprawling, sardonic oeuvre – the figure of Maurizio the Artist. Or is that just another Mini-Me (1999)?
