This year the Preis der Nationalgalerie, administered by the National Gallery in Berlin, was awarded to the artist Maurizio Cattelan.
The prize is awarded every two years to an influential contemporary artist whose work will be exhibited in a solo exhibition at a German institution. Cattelan was selected by an international jury of directors, including Emma Lavigne of the Pinault Collection in Paris; Sam Keller of the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland; and Klaus Biesenbach of the Neue Nationalgalerie.
Cattelan’s practice ranges from sculpture to installation to concept, but is characterized by a sharp intellect and incisive social commentary. One of his most iconic works is Pope John Paul II’s la nonaola (1999) “Golden Toilet” USA (2016), and a taped banana titled comedian (2019). (The latter made headlines when it was auctioned last year, while USA It will be sold by Sotheby’s later this month. ) In 2024 he was commissioned to design the Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. His practice is shock value and blatantly irreverent, often raising questions of morality, power, and values that are central to our time in an accessible yet enigmatic way.
Cattelan returned to Berlin and co-curated the 4th Berlin Biennale in 2006 and had a solo exhibition at the Neues Nationalgalerie during Berlin Art Week, opening in September 2026. The exhibition will be curated by Biesenbach and Lisa Botti, curator of the Neue Nationalgalerie, and will be commemorated with a ceremony.
“Twenty years later, a solo exhibition at the Neues Nationalgalerie offers an opportunity to revisit and reflect on this formative influence in a new social and cultural context,” the jury said in a statement, addressing “concerns about a particular impact on Berlin, a city profoundly affected by its complex history.”
They continue: “In an era of increasing political polarization, his art can encourage us to see commemoration not as a compulsion or obligation, but as a vital and relevant engagement with the present and the future. Cattelan’s ironic questioning of authority and ‘truth’ is particularly urgent today, too. At a moment when institutions such as museums, politics, and the media are reassessing their credibility and role in society, he examines power structures within and outside the art world, always without a didactic tone.” ”
Adding, “He reminds us that provocation and resourcefulness are not expressions of cynicism but forms of resistance and constructive reflection.”
In 2024, the award was awarded for the first time to four artists: Pan Daijing, Daniel Leigh, Hanni Lippard and James Richards.
