I get excited when I think about Andy Kaufman. I like him. He was ahead of his time. He’s still ahead. Although he’s dead. Andy Kaufman represents the quintessence of what I think entertainment is. And when I say entertainment I mean everything. High and low. Mainstream and elite. Art and trash. That’s it. Andy Kaufman is all that stuff. Actually, he is this stuff. Because the world is entertainment today as well. It’s always been like this actually, and he is one of the few people who understood that. Or maybe he only lived it – and made us live it – just like a true showman. In an entertainment way. The Maccarone gallery in NY unexpectedly opens the season with a show dedicated to him. They say it is because contemporary art has got influenced by him (Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Trisha Donnelly, Laurie Simmons and Maurizio Cattelan), but the explanation sounds too didactic. To say the truth, we don’t need that explanation. Andy has been the biggest entertainer of all time, in everything he did. And this is enough.

Thanks to Davide Di Teodoro

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All the images are courtesy of the gallery