Full Description
Arte Povera (poor art) came of age in the context of the economic boom of the "Italian miracle" and the subsequent student and workers' revolts of 1968. Its work was motivated by an urge to revolt against not only the primacy achieved by painting in the postwar period, but also against certain aspects of the emerging consumer culture. Published to accompany an exhibition organized in a collaboration between the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Tate Modern, this book provides a retropective of the Arte Povera movement as a historical and aesthetic phenomenon that crossed a wide range of disciplines, including sculpture, installation, drawing and photography as well as film and performance. Artists included are: Giovanni Anselmo, Alighero Boetti; Pier Paulo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Piero Gilardi, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini, and Gilberto Zorio.
Contents
The catalogue features rare historical documentation and, in addition to an introduction provided by the curators of the exhibition, contains an interview with critic Germano Celant, an illustrated timeline of the cultural and political milieu by Dr. Giorgia Bottinelli, and essays by Francesco Bonami, art historian Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Robert Lumley, Professor of Italian Cultural Studies, University of London, art historian Corinna Criticos, Karen Pinkus, Professor of French and Italian, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and Judith Russi Kirshner, Dean of the College of Architecture and the Arts, University of Illinois, Chicago. Additionally, there are profiles of each artist, a selected bibliography, and extensive illustrations of their work.
