Maurizio Cattelan: Like many other people, the first time I visited the Guggenheim Museum I couldn’t help wondering where you got the idea of the rotunda from.
Frank Lloyd Wright: Why, I just shook the building out of my sleeves. The idea of the rotunda was to create a new form of union between visitor, painting, and architecture.
MC: But don’t the curve and the low ceilings create a limit for high sculptures or large paintings, for example?
FLW: If the paintings are too large, cut them in half!
MC: There has been for quite a long time now the tendency of building “neutral” contemporary art museums—white cubes. How do you feel about them?
FLW: I don’t think they matter, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think they’re for me and why should I be for them?
MC: Have you heard what I’m going to do in your museum?
FLW: Yes, I have.
MC: And what do you think? Too simple?
FLW: Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.
MC: So you don’t mind having the building occupied by someone who has been defined as the art world’s court jester?
FLW: The court jester always spoke what other courtiers never dared utter.
Frank Lloyd Wright: Why, I just shook the building out of my sleeves. The idea of the rotunda was to create a new form of union between visitor, painting, and architecture.
MC: But don’t the curve and the low ceilings create a limit for high sculptures or large paintings, for example?
FLW: If the paintings are too large, cut them in half!
MC: There has been for quite a long time now the tendency of building “neutral” contemporary art museums—white cubes. How do you feel about them?
FLW: I don’t think they matter, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think they’re for me and why should I be for them?
MC: Have you heard what I’m going to do in your museum?
FLW: Yes, I have.
MC: And what do you think? Too simple?
FLW: Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.
MC: So you don’t mind having the building occupied by someone who has been defined as the art world’s court jester?
FLW: The court jester always spoke what other courtiers never dared utter.
-- an imaginary conversation between Cattelan and FLW at Vogue
