BOOK:Giuseppe Penone -Matrice,Rizzoli Publications
One of the most important living sculptors and a legendary figure associated with the revolutionary 1960s Arte Povera movement, Giuseppe Penone has combined radicality and classicism in a personal style that has been admired for half a century. Combining materials such as wood, wax, leather, marble, and bronze, his sculptures reveal a fascination with the transformative forces of nature and themes linked to ecology and environmental conservation. The book “Giuseppe Penone: Matrice” by Rizzoli Publications is an elegant volume dedicated to one of today’s most admired artists, celebrating the unveiling of his first contemporary permanent installation ever realized in Rome. Documenting Penone’s exhibition “Matrice” in the historic Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, the new headquarters of FENDI, this monograph serves both as an overview of the artist and a unique document for the extraordinary presentation of Penone’s work in the historic context of the city of Rome.The exhibition took name from Giuseppe Penone’s work, a 30-meter-long sculpture in which the trunk of a fir-tree has been carved out following one of its growth rings, thus bringing to the surface the past of the tree and its transformations in time. A bronze mold has been cast in the wood, apparently freezing nature’s flow of life. Like many of Penone’s artworks, “Matrice” (2015) reveals the artist’s interest in the relationship between time and nature and, metaphorically, between nature, humankind and transience.–Dimitris Lempesis
