Paris calls, the art world responds. Art Basel at the Grand Palais, Christie’s and Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Art Auctions, theAsia Now – Paris Asian Art Fair went to Monnaie de Paris, he Surrealism at the Center Pompidou and the most beautiful galleries in Europe open to the public. And there is also a little, or rather a lot, Italia in these frenetic Parisian weeks. Almost sixty years after the collective “Fire Image Water Earth” created in Fabio Sargentini’s L’Attico gallery and the critic’s emblematic exhibition They are hiding in German at Bertesca in Genoa, the wind ofPoor Art arrives at Commerce Exchange of Paris in an exhibition whose timing is extraordinarily appropriate in an era dominated by technology and the success of artificial intelligence.
Courtesy photo Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection, Paris 2024
More than 250 worksamong paintings, sculptures and installations signed by thirteen poor artists: Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini e Gilberto Zorio. Each of them is associated with a personality, an era or a material that had a profound influence on his poetics, such as Giorgio de Chirico for Paolini, Kazimir Malevich for Kounellis and an icon of Sano di Pietro by Marisa Merz.
The exhibition “Poor Art”inaugurated on October 9, was imagined by the curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev to tell the stages of the movement from its birth in Italy to its international influence. About fifty historical and emblematic works from the collection Pinault is combined with works from the archives of Rivoli Castlefrom the CRT Foundation for Modern and Contemporary Art of Turin, from Liechtenstein Art Museum of Vaduz, from Museum and Royal Forest of Capodimonte of Naples, from Modern Art Gallery (GAM) of Turin, from Pompidou Center of Paris and from Tate of London.
Outside the structure, Stone Ideas – 1532 kg of light it is the symbol of the poverty revolution at the end of the 1960s and of its propensity to explore the relationships between nature, man and culture, pushing the public towards a sensorial and immediate experience, as well as a conceptual one. In the work of Giuseppe Penone large boulders stand out on a bare tree, nullifying the laws of physics and the life cycle of the shrub. View of the Bourse and, from the right of the entrance, Fibonacci numbers Of Mario Merz radiates around the building encouraging the viewer to engage in mathematical calculation and enjoy the jewel created by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
Courtesy photo Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection, Paris 2024
In the first room, some historical shots recall the moments of discussion and installation development of the masters of contemporary art. Thus begins contact with some of their most iconic works and the story continues in “Rotunda”which captures the collective spirit of the movement. Below Stain from 1968 by Gilberto Zoriothe installation of other key works evokes the way in which Arte Povera extended onto the floor of the Present Art Deposita large space opened at the end of the 1960s in Turin, where artists could install works as they pleased, without formal inaugurations. In the hall “Rotunda”among the series of works positioned on the ground, the importance of horizontality becomes evident, a concept related to the notion that a work of art is not a painting or a sculpture, but a field of energy and a place to be traversed. It’s what Luciano Fabro calls habitat in the work The Spiratoan environment where audiences challenge attention and awareness of their perceptions embodied in the space.
This phenomenological experience of oneself in the place and in the present moment is contained in a particular way in three works in the exhibition: Space Of Giulio Paoliniwhere the eight letters that make up the words are hung all around the walls, at eye level, the first ice structure of Pier Paolo Calzolari of 1967 and inSelf-portrait Of Alighiero Boetti of 1993-1994. From the collective subjectivity and group ethos of the “Rotunda”, the imaginary breath of the wind transports into the rooms of the Galleriesdedicated individually to the thirteen poor people.
Courtesy photo Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection, Paris 2024
The Venus of rags of Pistoletto, the Veiled Christ of Anselmo, the Map by Boetti, theItaly overturned of Fabro, the Fake sculptures by Pascali, theHoroscope as a project of my life of Calzolari. The proposal is exciting, for those who are starting a journey in the world of art and for those who were present at that Roman evening in 1967.
The room dedicated to is suggestive Jannis Kounellisin which you can taste the essence of Arte Povera and the personal story of the Greek artist. The rose and its silhouette traced with charcoal, the bed with wool hairs and the iconic writing Untitled (Bar). Some photographs recall his performative action at the Galleria L’Attico when, in 1969, he brought together twelve horses arranged neatly along the walls of the room, as if they were sculptures. However, the fact that they were live animals created a tension between the natural dynamism of the creatures and the immobility typical of the art exhibition.
Courtesy photo Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection, Paris 2024
Emilio Prini’s room is enigmatic, it forces observation, reading and awareness in time and space. Five senses for an environment (Lead perimeter): five small lead packets define the space for the visitor and bring perceptions and bodily movements into play. Prini resists the idea that the artist must be “creative” and, therefore, also the art market, exploring forms of authenticity and union.
A dissimilar fate compared to some of his colleagues, whose poetics became contaminated with the need to meet commercial requests and the consequent increase in demand from the most coveted collectors.
