Beschreibung

MAURIZIO CATTELAN

Flavia De Sanctis Mangelli & Steven Guarnaccia (RAUM Italic, 2026)

24 x 24 cm | 48 pages | available in Italian and English | Hardback |  ISBN 978-3-949042-46-1 | 18 €

Produced with MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome.

Artist, designer, curator, “image devourer”: Who is Maurizio Cattelan, and what will his next challenge be? This book, part of the Piccoli MAXXI series, takes children on a journey to discover the artist’s life and major works—a journey that begins with his childhood in Padua and extends to his most famous works of recent years. Cattelan is a volcano of ideas, and his projects never cease to amaze and raise questions: from a castle made of stacks of magazines to a solid-gold toilet displayed in a museum, all the way to the famous banana stuck to the wall—a work of art you can even eat! An illustrated glossary at the end of the book helps young readers understand the technical terms used in the story, while a hands-on activity invites them to explore their own creativity and make unique creations.

Flavia De Sanctis Mangelli is an art historian and an expert in art and architecture publishing. Immediately after earning her degree, she began working in the publishing field, as part of Germano Celant’s staff and with international artists and photographers such as Carla Accardi, Giosetta Fioroni, Elisabetta Catalano, and the Boetti Foundation, on the production of books and catalogs. Since 2015, she has been head of the MAXXI Publishing Office, where she is responsible for defining the museum’s publishing strategies, managing its book series, and coordinating and producing all publications. A great lover of children’s books, she is the editor of the Guides and the “Piccoli MAXXI” series, a collection of children’s books dedicated to the artists and architects featured in the museum’s collection. She has published numerous essays and articles in books, newspapers, and specialized magazines and has edited a column on digital art.

Steven Guarnaccia is an illustrator and Professor Emeritus at the Parsons School of Design, where he directed the Illustration Program. He was formerly Op-Ed art director of “the New York Times”. He has illustrated for major magazines and newspapers in the US and abroad, including “Abitare” magazine, and has designed murals for Disney, watches for Swatch, and greeting cards and exhibition drawings for, “Achille Castiglioni: Design!” for the Museum of Modern Art. Together with Maria Cristina Didero he has created a book about the work of Michele De Lucchi and has collaborated with ADI. He is the author of books on popular culture and design. His children’s books about design include Goldilocks and the Three Bears: a Tale Moderne, The Three Pigs: An Architectural Tale and Cinderella: a Fashionable tale. His most recent books are The Story of Pasta, about the origin and meanings of pasta names; Interior Desecration, a collection of drawings about design and architecture and The Museum of Nothing, a picture book about Nothing. His exhibition of three-dimensional objects, Fatherland, has been exhibited in Bologna, London, Barcelona, Berlin, and New York.