ARTE POVERA

Its not just the way poor

materials have become
commonplace in artbeds, tents,
foodstuffs, says Frances Morris,
head of collections (international
art) at Tate Modern. These were
all brought into the gallery by arte
povera artists. But they also
rejected the need to develop a
personal style, approaching each
work as a separate project. Thats
why they tended to work across
genres and media. We are used to
this now but at the time it was
radical.

Manzoni'sArtist's Shit

Arte Povera - "poor art" or "impoverished art" - was the most significant and influential avantgarde movement to emerge in Europe in the 1960s. It grouped the work of around a dozen
Italian artists whose most distinctly recognizable trait was their use of commonplace materials
that might evoke a pre-industrial age, such as earth, rocks, clothing, paper and rope.
Their work marked a reaction against the modernist abstract painting that had dominated
European art in the 1950s, hence much of the group's work is sculptural. But the group also
rejected AmericanMinimalism, in particular what they perceived as its enthusiasm for
technology.
In this respect Arte Povera echoesPost-Minimalisttendencies in American art of the 1960s. But
in its opposition tomodernismand technology, and its evocations of the past, locality and
Artists
slavesjust
commercial
trademarks, says Pistoletto about arte poveras antimemory,became
the movement
is distinctly
Italian.
market stance. We were anti-commercial not because we were against the economy but
because it felt like art was a prisoner of the economy, he adds. His Minus Objects series
(1965-66) consisted of wildly disparate works that appeared to be by different artists, thereby
undermining the commercial ideal that an artist should have a signature style.
A return to simple objects and Nature can be documented in its physical and
messages
chemical transformation
The body and behaviour are art
Explore the notion of space and language
The everyday becomes meaningful
Complex and symbolic signs lose meaning
Traces of nature and industry appear
Ground Zero, no culture, no art system, Art = Life
Dynamism and energy are embodied

Arte Poveras spirit can be traced fromAlberto Burris work, whose painting made from burlap
sacks, provided an example of the use of poor materials.

Burlap sacks_ Alberto Burri

Concetto Spaziale _ Lucio Fonta

Structure for Talking While Standing (Minus Objects)(1965-66)

Artist: Michelangelo Pistoletto
Pistoletto's work often dealt with relationships . His earlier mirror works, which confronted self
and image, explored concepts of identity. TheMinus Objectsseries was developed around the
idea of art that was only completed through the addition of human interaction. In this
example, we can see how the structure connects to the viewer, allowing for a place to rest the
arms and feet. Dialogue was also a concern to the artist, andStructure for Standing While
Talkingcreates a bridge for conversation among visitors. Pistoletto originally conceived the

Venus of the rags

Artist:Pistoletto
Pistolettos use of a sculpture of Venus in these works, as an iconic motif of the canon of
Western art, invokes Italys cultural past in an ironic way. By combining the classically-inspired
statue with piled-up rags the artist announces a series of oppositions: hard/soft,
formed/unformed, monochrome/coloured, fixed/movable, precious/disregarded,
historical/contemporary, unique/common and the cultural/the everyday. In their poorness the

Ball of newspapers(1966)
Artist: Pistoletto
The globe is made from newspapers collected over a two-year period, therefore referring to
the passing of time and to historical events. Pistoletto rolled this work through the streets of
Turin before displaying it in the gallery setting. The moving sphere and its passage through
the streets symbolises the constantly changing events and aspects of life, as reported in the
newspapers that are squashed together inside it. Pistolettos concerns with material
processes as well as with wider political and world issues are similar to some of the works of

Quadri specchianti
Artist: Pistoletto
After recognizing the possibilities opened up by
confronting his reflection in the highly varnished
surfaces of his early paintings, Pistoletto fully realized
the potential of the mirror image in his
celebratedQuadri specchianti(mirror paintings),
initiated in 1962. The contrast between the stasis of
his carefully composed figures or objects in the
foreground and the circumstantial, haphazard, and
frenetic mirror reflection of the present in the
background generates space for both confrontation
and interaction with the viewer, an instantaneous
experience and an awareness of the passage of time.

32 Square Meters of Sea(1967)

Artist: Pino Pascali
Pino Pascali started out as a designer and illustrator for advertisements, and learned to push
the boundaries between illusion and reality. Similar to hisCubic Meters of Earthpieces,
Pascali's32 Square Meters of Seabrings together the natural and artificial. Containers hold
quantities of dyed water that replicate the variegated tints of the ocean, alluding to the
effects of motion and light. Yet the containers themselves also remind us of how humanity
attempts to control nature. The geometric shapes and industrial materials used to produce
the sculpture echo American Minimalist sculpture, though Pascali's use of a simple, natural
material such as water betrays its origins in the concerns of Arte Povera. To Pascali, the

A Cubic Metre of Earth (1967)

Artist: Pino Pascali
Delighting in a wide range of materials that included steel-wool
scouring pads, bread and hay, Pascali here displays the cubic
square of Italian earth in all its glory, deliberately playing with
ideas of abstract form and childish games with mud. He ignored
the boundaries between art practices and everyday life, and
aimed to transform the notion of play into high art. Discuss what
Pascali might be saying about the nature of Italian soil. Do you
think he is being serious or funny? Think about earth as a
material for making art. What other, more traditional, types of
art are made from materials that are found in the ground?.

Floor Tautology(1967)
Artist: Luciano Fabro
By the time he joined the Arte Povera group, Luciano Fabro was already a well-known artist
associated with the likes of Piero Manzoni and Lucio Fontana, two important precursors of the
movement. HisFloor Tautologyinvolves an area of floor, kept polished and covered with
newspapers to dry. Shown in Germano Celant's first survey of Arte Povera, Fabro's celebration
of an ordinary task was instrumental in his attempt to recalibrate the concept of fine art. The
elevation of a duty associated with housework - and most often coded as women's work -

Foot(1967)
Artist: Luciano Fabro
This work is one of a group of giant piedi (feet) made
using marble, metal, glass and silk. Fabro later produced
yet more, using an even wider variety of materials. He
juxtaposes these huge feet with a sensual pillar of silk,
stretching up to the ceiling. This negates any idea that
Arte
Povera
was
only
about
poor
materials.
Craftsmanship, as well as rich materials, is celebrated in a
monumental but also humorous way. We can enjoy the
pleasure and skill in the handling of the materials and the
wonderful scale of these enormous timeless feet. In this
work Fabro shows his concern with the contrast between
the manmade and nature by bringing together both
organic and inorganic materials.

Stack
Artist: Tony Cragg
Stack resembles a cross section
view of long forgotten, buried
rubbish. He identifies as key
themes
in
his
work
his
relationships to the natural
world and the human kinds
impact on nature. It is natural
world versus manmade world.
He
refuses
to
distinguish
between the landscape and the
city adding that manmade
objects are fossilised keys to a
past time which is our present.
he seeks to build a poetic
mythology for the industrially
produced objects of our time.