BERLIN.- The 2026 Preis der Nationalgalerie will be awarded to Maurizio Cattelan. The prize honours one of the most influential contemporary artists, who will be represented in Germany for the first time with a solo exhibition. His works, which range from sculpture and installation to conceptual practice, are characterised by sharp humour, bitter seriousness and a profound reflection on social structures. The exhibition accompanying the Preis der Nationalgalerie will open at the Neue Nationalgalerie during Berlin Art Week in September 2026 and will be curated by Lisa Botti, curator Neue Nationalgalerie, with Klaus Biesenbach, director Neue Nationalgalerie.

Since the early 1990s, Maurizio Cattelan (born 1960 in Padua) has been one of the defining voices in international art. His iconic works—including La Nona Ora (1999), a figure of Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite, Him (2001), a praying schoolboy with the face of Adolf Hitler, and Untitled (2003), an animatronic sculpture based on the protagonist of Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum—show how Cattelan uses shock, irritation and moral ambivalence to raise central questions of our time: guilt, responsibility, power and collective trauma. Cattelan’s artistic practice is permeated by a combination of humour and tragedy, irony and profundity that makes his works appear both accessible and enigmatic.

The expert jury for the Preis der Nationalgalerie 2026 – made up of Emma Lavigne (Director Pinault Collection, Paris), Sam Keller (Director Fondation Beyeler, Basel) and Klaus Biesenbach (Director Neue Nationalgalerie)—states:

“Nearly two decades ago, as co-curator of the 4th Berlin Biennale, Maurizio Cattelan played a decisive role in establishing Berlin’s international standing as a centre of contemporary art. Twenty years on, a solo exhibition at Neue Nationalgalerie offers an opportunity to revisit and reflect on this formative influence within a new social and cultural context.

Cattelan’s practice engages enduring themes such as power, religion, death, humour and memory—concerns that resonate with particular force in Berlin, a city profoundly shaped by its complex history. As an Italian artist with an international career, he brings a distinctly European perspective to questions of identity, responsibility and collective remembrance. In Germany, where forms of remembrance are currently being re-examined—between the last generations with direct connections to the NS era and a younger generation informed by global perspectives—Cattelan’s art acquires renewed significance. In a time of increasing political polarization, his art can encourage us to view remembrance not as compulsion or obligation, but as a vital and relevant engagement with the present and the future.

Cattelan’s ironic questioning of authority and “truth” also carries particular urgency today. At a moment when institutions—museums, politics and the media—are re-evaluating their credibility and social roles, he scrutinizes structures of power both within and beyond the art world, always without moralizing. He reminds us that provocation and wit are not expressions of cynicism but forms of resistance and constructive reflection. Particularly in the German context, where public discourse often carries a strong moral charge, his art opens up spaces for thought beyond outrage and polarization. Cattelan is not an artist of straightforwardness. His strength lies in embracing ambiguity, exposing contradictions and posing new questions.

The Neue Nationalgalerie, with its iconic building by Mies van der Rohe, is ideally suited as a place situated between modernity, the 20th and 21st centuries, and the present day, to showcase Cattelan's work in all its complexity—as a mirror and commentary on our time.”

Maurizio Cattelan, 2025: Being an artist is not a job, it’s a malfunction / Art is a way to survive, not a way to live. If I knew what I was doing, I would have stopped a long time ago. Sometimes the best idea is the one you’re too ashamed to say out loud. Failure is my favorite color. I don’t make art to communicate, I make it to escape. If you want to say something serious, wear a clown’s nose. I don’t believe in inspiration, I believe in good timing and better excuses. You don’t make a masterpiece, you survive one. Beauty is the perfect alibi. My goal is to vanish completely, leaving behind just a question mark. As long as you don’t choose, everything is possible. Being original is overrated, being precise is terrifying. Guilt is one of the purest materials an artist can use. Sometimes I wish I could copyright silence. If I believed in messages, I’d work in advertising. I don’t create meaning, I offer traps for it. Truth is not an ingredient, it’s the aftertaste. Every artwork is a loophole. You know it’s working when you start regretting it. If I wanted comfort, I’d buy furniture. The best artworks are mistakes no one dared to fix. A good work doesn’t ask for attention, it steals it. A banana on a wall is still more honest than most people I’ve met. The more you polish an idea, the less it cuts. If you can live without it, it wasn’t art. Conceptual art? All art is conceptual if you think long enough. I treat exhibitions like funerals: silent, awkward, and full of flowers. Success is just failure that forgot to stop. Every exhibition should feel like a crime scene. A good artwork should make the museum a little nervous. Every object is a hostage of its own interpretation. When in doubt, carve it in marble. I never trusted things that come with a label. The most radical gesture is to do nothing and make people talk about it. The less I explain, the more they write.

Maurizio Cattelan’s exhibition at Neue Nationalgalerie opens in September 2026 with an award ceremony. The exhibition is made possible by the FREUNDE der Nationalgalerie. BMW has been a partner of the Preis der Nationalgalerie since 2006 and is prolonging its commitment to this important award in the future.