COURTESY ARTNEWS
Well, there you have it: New York’s Rupert Murdoch-owned daily tabloid has put Maurizio Cattelan’s “America”—the Guggenheim’s golden toilet heard ’round the world, open to the public today—on the cover. The wood is pretty much what you’d expect: “We’re No. 1! (And No. 2).” The rest of the coverlines riff on the obvious joke here, while a photo caption helpfully explains that the work is “satirical.”
The accompanying story—”OUR COUNTRY WHIZ OF THEE”—is even more scatological, which is probably just gravy for Cattelan, who clearly loves this stuff. (One wonders what the Guggenheim’s curators, who now have to deal with the city’s biggest art spectacle in one of their bathrooms, think.)
A highlight, of sorts, is this quote from Upper West Side teacher Ken Klinger: “Wow, pissing in a 18-karat gold toilet at the Guggenheim. Sounds like Donald Trump’s dream.”
I emailed a friend who works at the Post to see if he could ask around the bullpen to see when the paper last put contemporary art on its cover, and he said that he got a lot of the same response: “No idea.”