Famed Italian visual artist and curator
Maurizio Cattelan and curator Sam Stourdzé offer a rereading of the history of color photography through the 20th century into the 21st, and through the works of over 20 artists (as well as the cult images of
Toiletpaper) who take us on a journey into vibrant, acidulous worlds.
The publication invites us to explore the history of color photography over the whole course of the twentieth century, through the zestful gaze of 19 artists. The tour, in seven chapters, leads us into vibrant, saturated worlds where colour strikes the retina and engages the mind.
Often disparaged and rarely taken seriously, color photography has nevertheless allowed photographers to let their hair down, take out their palettes, and repaint the world. Many have freed themselves from the documentary function of the photographic medium to explore the common roots of the image and the imaginary, flirting with pop art, surrealism, bling, kitsch, and the baroque.
The conquest of color in photography closely followed the invention of the medium, with the first scientific experiments taking place in the mid-19th century. In 1907, the first industrial color photographic emerged with the autochrome, created by the Lumière brothers. This ushered in a century of chromatic experimentation: from ordinary scenes to philosophical and political reflections, color transcended the status of a mere tool and became a central narrative element.
Whether magnifying the details of an everyday scene, redefining codes of beauty in magazines, or capturing committed subjects, color photography offers an intensely chromatic vision of the world. This diversity of gazes and practices bears witness to a common thread: the desire to make us see things differently, by infusing images with the life and emotion that only color can convey.
Maurizio Cattelan and Sam Stourdzé revisit the history of colour photography with regard to the 20 issues of the iconic magazine Toiletpaper. Images from Toiletpaper provide a unifying narrative thread, infecting and barging in on the pages of the book and alluding to the book artists' pictures in a way that sets up a dialogue and metaphorically creates an imagined group of iconographic friends.
Artist include:
Miles Aldridge, Erwin Blumenfeld, Guy Bourdin, Juno Calypso,
Walter Chandoha, Harold Edgerton, Hassan Hajjaj, Hiro, Ouka Leele, Arnold Odermatt, Ruth Ginika Ossai,
Martin Parr, Pierre et Gilles,
Alex Prager,
Adrienne Raquel,
Sandy Skoglund,
Toiletpaper, William Wegman, Madame Yevonde.
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at the Villa Medicis, Rome, in 2025.
Sam Stourdzé is an exhibition curator. Since 2020 he has been the Director of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, of which he is a former Fellow. He previously directed the Rencontres d'Arles (France) and the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne.
Maurizio Cattelan is one of the most prominent Italian artists in the contemporary art scene. Over a thirty-yearlong career, his works highlight the paradoxes of society and reflect on political and cultural scenarios with great depth and insight. By using iconic images and a caustic visual language, his works spark heated public debate fostering a sense of collective participation.
Cattelan is the creator, with Pierpaolo Ferrari, of
Toiletpaper.
Toilet Paper is an artists' magazine created and produced by
Maurizio
Cattelan and photographer
Pierpaolo Ferrari (
Le
Dictateur), born out of a passion or obsession they both
cultivate: images. Following in the wake of Cattelan's cult publication
Permanent Food, the
magazine contains no text; each picture springs from an idea, often simple,
and through a complex orchestration of people it becomes the materialization
of the artists' mental outbursts. Since the first issue, in 2010,
Toilet
Paper has created a world that displays ambiguous
narratives and a troubling imagination. It combines the vernacular of
commercial
photography with twisted narrative tableaux and surrealistic
imagery. The result is a publication that is itself a work of art which,
through its accessible form as a magazine, and through its wide
distribution, challenges the limits of the contemporary art economy.
