Kounellis

Jannis Kounellis (*1936 in Piraeus, Greece) is one of the major figures of Arte Povera. Today he looks back at a career spanning more than fifty years in which his idiosyncratic works of art have left a lasting impact on contemporary art history. Kounellis started by producing small paintings, but today he concentrates on his elegiac installations. He is known for his in-depth knowledge of the various materials which he combines with great pleasure. Gas flames, trails of smoke, steel, iron, lead, glass, coal, cotton, coffee grinds, or textiles intermingle with equal importance. Through the use of these materials, Kounellis continues to renegotiate fundamental principles of life: temporality, endurance, development and decay. This latest monograph deals with Kounellis' works from early 2016 and extensively illustrates the exhibition Relampagos sobre Mexico where he employed objects belonging to the workers of a former train workshop (now an arts center). By doing so, Kounellis created passages of visual poetry aiming to dignify the working class and reinvigorate a spirit of the revolution.