BOOK:Arte Povera, Phaidon Publications
When we talk about the most important Avant-Garde Movements of the 20th Century, an important spot is taken by Arte Povera, which had emerged in the early ‘60s and had a tremendous impact on the art world. In the book “Arte Povera” by Phaidon Publications, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev has written extensively on these artists. Her introductory essay, covering all the key dates, players and issues of Arte Povera, is complemented by the works and statements of the artists themselves as well as their precursors and associates. Christov-Bakargiev has also selected seminal writings by Germano Celant as well as contemporary and retrospective documents by other thinkers, curators and practitioners including Jean-Christophe Ammann, Umberto Eco, Rudi Fuchs, R D Laing, Herbert Marcuse, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Harold Rosenberg. All started in 1967 when the art critic Germano Celant, organized the exhibition “Arte Povera e IM Spazio” at Galleria La Bertesca in Genoa with the works of 13 artists: Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini and Gilberto Zorio. Bridging the natural and the artificial, the urban and the rural, Mediterranean life and Western modernity, Arte Povera’s impact still resounds. This rebellious and even radical movement took place at all the major Italian cities, attacking the values of established institutions of culture, industry and the state itself. Although Arte Povera officially stopped existing as an organized movement in the ‘70s, its impact and influence can still be felt in all spheres of art, particularly through the production of conceptual sculpture and the work of its participants still working today.-Efi Michalarou
