Jannis Kounellis
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
