- Maurizio Cattelan (Italy, 1960) is an international contemporary artist who, in spite of his popularity and his many exhibitions, has never spoken in public. "I express myself through my images because I cannot speak", he confessed. “I forbid myself to appear on TV or give radio interviews," he added. During the first years, the artist hired would-be-curator Massimiliano Gioni to give lectures pretending to be Cattelan. For some time, the public was easily deceived, not suspecting that the man in front of them was not the true artist. As Cattelan became more recognisable through his self-portraits and Gioni gained status as a curator (he was in fact the curator of the last Venice Biennial) they had to stop with their scheme.

We are the Revolution (La Rivoluzione siamo noi), by Maurizio Cattelan (2000)

Guggenheim Museum, New York

- Laurie Simmons is an American photographer who in the 70s made two series entitled Early Black and White and Early Color Interiors. They are color and B&W photographs of small plastic figurines of women performing the chores of a housewife. The images feel almost claustrophobic as the mother seems trapped in her role.

Early Color Interiors, by Laurie Simmons (1970s)

Color photography

Simmons is an extreme feminist who, a couple of years ago, did a series of photos starring a Japanese erotic doll she bought on a trip to Tokyo.

The Love Doll, by Laurie Simmons (2009-2011)

Color photography

Laurie Simmons is married to American artist Carroll Dunham, who began his career as an abstract artist. He explained that, for many years, he's been searching for the meaning of the female nude and was able to finally express it through figurative painting. These images, a mixture between Paul Gauguin's Tahiti women and those voluptuous ones by Willem de Kooning, are quite moving, leaving the public speachless. 

Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham are the parents of Girls' creator and actress: Lena Dunham. Maybe this will help us fully understand Lena...

- Eduardo Sívori (Buenos Aires, 1847-1918) was born into a family of rich Italian merchants. In 1883 he arrived to Paris to solve some family matters and there he decided to start a career as an artist. While he studied at the Colarossi Academy, he wrote pieces for El Diario, where he would report on Paris' cultural life. His goal, as an artist, was to translate into canvas the big events of Argentine History, as the Cabildo Abierto of 1810. However, four years later, he sends to Buenos Aires his Lever de la bonne, a natural nude of a working-class woman. With Sivori you can tell how the European experience transformed Argentine artists, changing not only their priorities but also the way in which they thought art and their role in society. 

This large nude can be seen at the temporary exhibition on erotism actually on display at the MNBA, curated by Laura Malosetti Costa.

Le lever de la bonne, by Eduardo Sívori (1887)

Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 198 x 131 cm

MNBA

Keep reading... "33 Artists in 3 Acts", de Sara Thornton. Ed. Granta, Londres, 2014.
"Cuadros de viaje, Artistas argentinos en Europa y Estados Unidos (1880-1910)", AAVV, 2008, Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Económica.