Maurizio Cattelan’s exhibition at Casa Malaparte is accessible only by sea

A month after the opening of his "Seasons" exhibition at Gamec, the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bergamo, Maurizio Cattelan returns to Italy with a new artistic intervention, this time hosted in the legendary Casa Malaparte, in Capri. As of July 9, 2025, "Fear of Painting," promoted by the Gagosian Gallery, is accessible exclusively by sea and by invitation, enriching the well-established tradition of temporary exhibition projects that over time have inhabited the mansion built by Curzio Malaparte on the promontory of the island's east coast.

Known for his provocative and ironic language, the Padua-born artist presents a collection of marble sculptures conceived in close dialogue with the identity of the site. Among the works: classical busts, hands holding lifeless birds, and partially obscured faces—figures whose intense material presence contrasts with the rationalist clarity of the house’s architecture, conceived as a total work of art.

“Fear of Painting” serves a dual purpose: it further strengthens the collaboration between Cattelan and Gagosian, which officially began in May 2025 with the “Sunday” exhibition, and it continues the tradition of contemporary art interventions that have animated the memory of Casa Malaparte over the years—featuring artists such as Rudolf Stingel, Brice Marden, Jonas Wood, and Shio Kusaka.

Designed in 1938 and completed in 1941, Casa Malaparte remains one of the most iconic examples of Italian Rationalist architecture. Commissioned and partially designed by Malaparte himself, the villa expresses a vision of the relationship between “people and things,” where design, as Walter Mariotti wrote in Domus issue 1055, “before being a tool for domestic technology, is a means for the affirmation of identity”. The architectural significance of the house – also made famous through its appearance in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Le Mépris – was the focus of a previous Gagosian exhibition in New York, dedicated to its original furnishings and a rich archive of books, magazines and historical materials.

Opening image: Casa Malaparte, Capri. Photo Cornelli2010 from Flickr.