Maurizio Cattelan’s Taxidermy Raises Questions Art Still Cannot Escape – TheCollector

In 2013, Maurizio Cattelan presented five taxidermied horses suspended mid-air with their heads stuck in a gallery wall.
Published: Sep 22, 2026 written by Anastasiia Kirpalov, MA Art History & Curatorial Studies
Published: Sep 22, 2026written by Anastasiia Kirpalov, MA Art History & Curatorial Studies
 
Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan is known for his provocative and often shocking installations. A particularly important fragment of Cattelan’s work was based on his use of taxidermy. For more than a decade, he suspended dead horses from gallery ceilings and staged suicides of squirrels. The practice of taxidermy itself is far from being novel, but do we really still need it in contemporary art? Read on to learn more about Maurizio Cattelan and the ethical issue of the use of taxidermy in art.
 
 
Maurizio Cattelan is one of the most famous contemporary artists known for his dark sense of humor, bitter irony, and provocative stance. Cattelan had no formal training as an artist and used to work as a carpenter. This practice, as well as his obvious distance from the conventional art world, became crucial for his artistic work. Instead of trying to fit in, Cattelan deliberately highlighted his otherness through his use of unconventional materials, provocative symbols, and sometimes repulsive aesthetics. Ironically, over the years, he became accepted by the art world as one of its contemporary classics despite deliberately breaking the rules. In his own artistic practice, Cattelan compares himself to the mythical prophetess Cassandra, whose true revelations were never taken seriously as part of her curse.
 
While creating his works, Cattelan relies on the help of assistants. As a conceptual artist, he relies more on the idea than its practical realization. Particularly, his taxidermy works often require entire teams to construct and maintain the pieces.
 
 
Initially, taxidermy served as a way to preserve specimens of birds and animals imported from overseas. Initially, travelers tried to transport live animals, but more often than not, they died because of unsuitable climate conditions or stress. The earliest known examples refer to the 16th century when Dutch merchants stuffed exotic bird skins with spices to preserve their shape. Although it may seem gross and cruel for us today, centuries ago, this practice launched zoology as a wide and complex discipline, allowing scholars to study and compare different animals without being dependent on their location.
 
 
Gradually, animal bodies stuffed with various materials and reshaped in more or less naturalistic ways became the staple of curiosities collections and the prototypes of modern natural history museums. Taxidermy became a cherished craft in high demand. As it developed, its aesthetic element slowly took over. Instead of simply reshaping the animal, taxidermists often arranged them in naturalistic scenes. Their goal was to make the creature look as alive as possible, challenging the usual concepts of life and death.
 
Approaching the modern era, taxidermy developed in a more creative direction. Artists began arranging animals in anthropomorphic scenes by dressing dead animals in tiny suits and arranging social situations around them. Particularly famous were the works of the Victorian taxidermist Walter Potter, who imitated human interactions such as playing cards or drinking tea using cats, squirrels, and other small animals.
 
 
Some people have an actual phobia of taxidermy. Others, even if they do not suffer from it, still experience a morbid and disturbing effect of it. Partially, it is related to our mental and social rejection of dead bodies. At the same time, it could be connected to the uncanny valley effect. The human brain categorizes these animals as something alive but not alive enough to be entirely realistic. In a way, we see them as something that pretends to be alive, provoking shock and fear of the unknown.
 
Apart from the fear of death and the unknown, some people see taxidermy as disrespectful toward life and death. There is also the issue of control and natural hierarchies at play. Some critics of taxidermy see it as an act of biological dominance, in which humans see themselves as able to choose which bodies are worthy of a proper burial and which are worthy of an educational or entertaining demonstration.
 
 
One of the most famous animal works that attracted the audience’s attention to the use of taxidermy by Cattelan was his installation for the 1997 Venice Biennale. He placed 200 stuffed pigeons inside the empty Italian pavilion. Initially, the visitors did not notice the birds, paying attention only after stepping on the painted excrement on the floor. Soon, the dead birds began attracting the real ones, turning the pavilion into a chaotic and confusing space, contrasting with the high-brow intellectualism of the Biennale.
 
According to the artist, he entered the pavilion for the first time when it was empty and filled with birds. Always ready to challenge the viewers’ expectations, Cattelan decided to leave the space as it was, only adding stuffed birds to guarantee their presence within the space. The live birds, mindlessly flocking into the pavilion, also raised the issue of over-tourism in Venice, which was already an issue in 1997 and has only become worse.
 
 
In the 1990s and 2000s, Cattelan extensively worked with one of the most unusual animals for the practice of taxidermy—huge horses. The Ballad of Trotsky was presented during Cattelan’s first-ever solo show. The title referred to the life and death of the famous Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, who was killed in Mexico for his opposition to Joseph Stalin. Through the figure of Trotsky, Cattelan formulated the entire tragedy of the failed Russian Revolution. Despite its promising beginning—symbolically shown here through a horse that made a brave leap into nowhere—it remained stuck somewhere in between worlds, cultures, and ideologies.
 
 
Cattelan’s signature dark humor revealed itself in the famous 1996 work that featured a squirrel that supposedly shot itself in the interior of a poorly equipped kitchen. The seemingly nonsensical title referred to Cinderella’s fairy godmother’s magic words from the 1950 cartoon. The squirrel itself is the animal that often appears in fairytales and films as an optimistic and cheerful companion. In Cattelan’s version of the story, the squirrel did not manage to survive the real world of non-fairytale responsibilities. It left a water heater turned on and a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. These objects somehow made the scene more absurd and touching simultaneously.
 
 
Another famous horse piece by Cattelan consisted of five animals, once again suspended mid-leap, with their heads stuck in a gallery wall. The scene that shocked many visitors and provoked a series of protests referred to a story written by Italian writer Curzio Malaparte. Describing his experience as a war correspondent on the Eastern Front of World War II, Malaparte wrote about the thousands of horses that died while trying to escape the air raid near the Soviet-Finnish border. Allegedly, as the horses jumped into the lake Ladoga, the water suddenly froze, leaving the animals trapped with their dead heads over the layer of ice. Malaparte’s story did not match well with the laws of physics, yet it nonetheless gave Cattelan a valuable set of symbols. His horses, with their heads stuck, seem to be neither dead nor alive, forever trapped in between worlds and physical conditions.
 
 
Unfortunately, Cattelan does not comment upon where his taxidermied animals come from and how he arranges his creative purpose. This silence forces many art professionals and lovers to protest against exhibiting his work. He, however, is certainly not the only one who is attacked by animal rights activists. Apart from Cattelan, the list of other famous artists who use taxidermy for their works includes Damien Hirst, responsible for the deaths of almost a million animals ranging from flies to zebras. The ethical limits of their practice still remain controversial: while activists insist on its unnecessary cruelty, artists regard it as their right to creative expression. This right, in their opinion, sometimes demands sacrifices.
 
 
Contemporary artist Sarina Brewer offers a more ethical way of working with dead animals. Known for her avant-garde taxidermy, she relies only on natural deaths and road accidents—using animals that have already died. Moreover, she insists that out of respect for the dead creature, taxidermists should not let any fragment go to waste. Her approach presents a stark contrast with the practice of Damien Hirst, who ordered animals, including several sharks, to be killed for his installations. Chinese artist Cai Guo Qiang, known for installing 99 stuffed wolves, uses realistic copies instead of real animals.
 
The ethical debate around taxidermy seems to be a never-ending one. In most cases, it is dismissed as a cruel practice that exploits animals despite the presence of more ethical and sustainable alternatives offered by artists like Sarah Brewer. Other artists who work with taxidermy prefer to work with vintage specimens. As it seems, our fascination with the morbid and the life-death dichotomy does not allow us to let go of this practice easily.
Anastasiia is an art historian and curator based in Bucharest, Romania. Previously she worked as a museum assistant, caring for a collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Her main research objectives are early-20th-century art and underrepresented artists of that era. She travels frequently and has lived in 8 different countries for the past 28 years.
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