Maurizio Cattelan, Italy’s Most Provocative Artist, on the Cover of VICE Magazine

VICE Magazine is launching the Holy Trinity Issue today featuring a series of photos by the notorious Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan in collaboration with Pierpaolo Ferrari. Cattelan’s retrospective at the Guggenheim last November was meant to announce his retirement from the art world, but like a mischevious child he’s up to his old antics again.

The cover features one of Cattelan’s provocative photos showing a plunger, a stapler, and a dildo lined up side by side. (You can think about the implictions of that for yourself.) The magazine was required by the U.S. Postal Service to censor the photo, which they did by covering the image with a large DILDO sticker. As a result, DILDO stickers have been showing up all over the city, often covering street signs, forming a comical sort of reverse censorship.

The irony of the censorship turned street art is fitting, as Cattelan’s work is all about pushing the boundaries of the acceptable. Some of his best-known work includes a life-sized wax sculpture of the pope being struck by a meteor, as well as a child-sized version of Hitler on his knees, and John F. Kennedy in an open casket. To see some of his work, check out Toilet Paper, the biannual zine published by Cattelan and Ferrari.

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