As Art Povera is such a large topic to cover, I am going to attempt to do it thematically in order to be able to cover as much as possible. In this post, I will focus on Arte Povera's relationship with the nature and environments. Germano Celant wrote of this engagement with nature in his 1969 book Arte Povera, where he states 'animals, vegetables and minerals take part in the world of art', emphasising how the materiality of work is changing to use these typically 'poor' and easy attainable materials.
Contextually, the 1960's in Italy were a time of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation post-economic miracle. Cities began expanding rapidly and the natural landscape started to diminish on the peripheries. Artists such as Pino Pascali, Guiseppe Penone and Jannis Kounellis, among many others, play with the idea of the environment and environments, and do so through the materiality and subject matter of their work. For Pascali, creating artificial natural such as his Bristle Worms from 1968 plays with the idea of nature and artifice, as he is using an artificial material to create a natural form, which he then places outside in the natural environment. Penone also works outside of the gallery space, but does so in a more natural way and is concerned with humans imprint on nature as opposed to the play between natural/artifice. His Alpi Marittime's from the same year consist of metal casts of the artists hand wrapped around the trunks of sapling trees - when these grow, they form around the cast and are evident of humans affect on nature, consistently adapting to the presence of society.
Kounellis is also influenced by nature, but instead of working outside, he brings nature into the gallery space. In 1967, he bought a colourful parrot into the gallery space at L'Attico, where it was free to fly around the gallery space. The parrot created a tropical environment in the gallery space, but also played with the idea of confinement and captivity. A year later in 1968, 12 horses were bought into L'Attico and exhibited, using the new gallery space as a barn. Smells and sounds alongside visual were engaged, and the exhibition was seen as 'an organised controlled presentation of nature', which says something about the fact the horses were tied to the walls. Whilst nature was being presented, it was a restricted version that is symbolic to the way the cityscapes urbanise nature.
Images to use:
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