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Jannis Kounellis, born in 1936 in Piraeus (Greece), lived and worked in Rome (died in 2017). Along with artists like Beuys, M. Merz, Morris and Serra, he is part of a second wave of modernists who, in the 60s, radically expanded our vision of fine art with a new iconography of materials. As a pioneering figure of arte povera, Kounellis used "poor" materials - relics and fragments of Mediterranean history and everyday life - placing these objects in often startling juxtapositions, to create a new poetic context. Kounellis conjures a 20th century version of the mythic village blacksmith, forging his environments with wood, coal, iron and fire.
From Wall Works
