Yet again, Maurizio Cattelan achieved his admitted goal: he is on the covers of magazines.
The finger, called L.O.V.E.*, has been erected in front of the Milan stock exchange for the duration of the Fashion Week happening in the city.
Everyone is happy: Cattelan gets his attention, the public is proud of such a daring representative, the city gets its Fashion Week (kind of) publicized, and the brokers… well, the brokers have a good laugh and continue their business as usual.
That is not to say the work is not good. It is poignant. The finger that is sticking is the only one remaining on the hand. The others seem to have been severed. So is this hand telling the bankers to go fuck themselves, or is that the only thing it can say? Or maybe it’s that when you have next to nothing, the middle finger is the one to resist longest.
Oh, but of course, it’s made of marble and put on a pedestal.

But that, really, is not the work at work here. The work is to have been able to put it in front of the Stock Exchange. To have shown them the finger and have them accept it. This is what makes a real contemporary trickster – not the sculpture, but the context.
“We want to be confirmed as the capital of contemporary art”, the city’s administrators officially stated, “and we have to not only mediate but also accept what we do not like”.
Which is a hilarious comment, and only confirms Cattelan’s intelligence. One wonders how he did it. Maybe what he said was, let’s cut the crap, it is a criticism, but it will attract more tourists than you can ever imagine, and will not hurt you in any way whatsoever, because no one is going to take their money out of the stocks after seeing my work. On the contrary, the tourists will leave their money in Milan.
But the controversy remains. “It is unacceptable that the City sticks its finger up to the Stock Exchange” – said the councillor for Town Planning Carlo Masseroli in a fervent discussion.
Masseroli says: “the administration cannot be culturally subordinate to a self-styled artist like Cattelan who wants to use Milan to earn money”.
Oh, that’s right, Cattelan made money off this! I wonder who payed him.
So the question is, who is Cattelan showing the finger to?
I’m not sure, but the pictures suggest that the finger is in front of the stock exchange. And is not pointing towards it, but from it.

Which could end this text. But will not. Because even if Cattelan laughs in our face, even if he plays a trick on all of us, he still plays out the crucial role of catalyzer – he materializes the tensions that are already there. He makes us go “Hey! Wait a minute!” He sticks the finger where it hurts.

*The title was originally supposed to be “Omnia munda mundis” (“To the pure ones everything is pure”).

Sometimes summer afternoons aren’t meant for lounging outdoors – they’re occasionally better spent finding artful surprises in bookstores.

Such was the case on this day, an unremarkable one until my wandering eye locked onto something of promising note. A book. By the way, most people would agree that they venture into bookstores seeking books. After my experience today, I must say that I disagree. People shop in bookstores because they crave surprises. Yes, in all likelihood, the thing you’ve been looking for will indeed be a book, but is it the book or the thrill of surprise that has you hooked? Hmm. Mystery and philosophy. Do questions never cease?

Anyway, as my gaze ventured down the frittering possibilities among the art book shelf, suddenly a love connection. I saw the book “Actors As Artists. “Hmm, I thought. “Let’s take a look. What a nice surprise.

First of all, “Actors As Artists” authored by actors Jim McMullan and Dick Gautier (Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.) was first published back in 1992. That’s not so long ago, but they could certainly give it an update. It’s truly a remarkable book about actors, some more famous than others, who paint in their private time. I’ve just finished flipping through and reading some of it.

It’s really everything an art book should be. With every turn of the page, a surprise. I knew that Anthony Quinn and Jane Seymour painted, but did you know that Zero Mostel and Claudette Colbert were artists? I knew that Billy Dee Williams and Phyllis Diller dabbled, but what about Henry Fonda and Lionel Barrymore? I’m sure Drew knew, but who else had a clue? Mystery revealed. The book is wonderfully unpretentious and it’s so clear that the actors true love may not be acting at all. They paint because they love art.

As I’m sitting here writing and flipping through the book again, a reminder comes to mind. There’s no law of the universe that says we MUST do one and only one thing for our entire lives. In fact, it’s probably just the opposite. If you listen to your creative voice, you can do many things in a single lifetime. That’s how it should be. After all, we’re only here once. While actors get comebacks, no one gets to come back. THIS IS IT. Of course, being an actor doesn’t mean you can pick up a paintbrush and become Paul Gauguin in one stroke. It just means that you went for it. You heard your calling, gathered up the courage and got busy. When you follow your creative leanings, life is full of surprises.

Oh, another thing. Your career is what you do for a living, but what you do in your free time is who you really are. It may not be the WHOLE you, but it’s certainly the REAL you. It’s who you are down in your soul. If you’re an artist down in your soul, you’ve got it goin’ on. In a way, we’re all actors, but how long can you go on ignoring the role of your soul? Ahh, philosophy. What better time than on a summer afternoon?

One of my favorite passages in the book comes from actor Michael Moriarity who says, “Art is not an avocation for me. It is more like a periodic urge to pray in a different way. My pieces exist because there was no other way to reveal what was going on within in me.

In short, I think Michael is saying, “Who needs a Tony, Emmy and Oscar sandwich when you’ve got art feeding you? And let me say, “That’s quite a sandwich!

But seriously, I’m not an art critic, but as a collector, I must say that I’d be thrilled to own anything that I’ve seen in this book. Actor As Artists. I’m so glad that I found this book. You never know what surprise may be lurking around the shelf. Little surprises are the spice of life. One minute, you’re depressed and the next moment, you find something unexpected and you’re laughing at the foolishness of past thoughts.

John Forsythe, an artist? Eve Plumb, who played Jan on “The Brady Bunch, an artist? Who knew? One thing I know for sure Eve probably never yells, “Marcia! Marcia! Marcia! in HER free time.

MICHAEL CORBIN IS AN AVID ART COLLECTOR AND AUTHOR OF THE NEW BOOK, “THE ART OF EVERYDAY JOE: A COLLECTOR’S JOURNAL.” CHECK HIM OUT AT WWW.ARTMAESTROGALLERY.COM

Created by Michael Corbin On 07/21/08 At 10:06 AM