Jannis Kounellis

Mod 4, 1999

Jannis Kounellis was a central figure in the arte povera movement, a collection of Italy's most important and influential post-war artists.

“In the sixties they called me an artist because they did not know how to define a heap of coal. But I am a painter, and I defend my initiation in painting.” -  Jannis Kounellis, 1993

Paired back to recall Kounellis’ base attraction to aggregates, the Mod lithographic series is a succinct presentation of this iconic artist’s intuitions.

“Starting in 1966, Kounellis—who, like Mario Merz and Pistoletto, was already known as a painter—began working with a large number of nonartistic materials, such as birds, cotton, cacti, flames, coffee, hair, coal, and wool. These materials, although natural per se, we presented in a form that evoked human action and industry: the coal and cotton were piled, the wool was woven onto wooden poles or ropes, the hair was braided, the coffee was ground. Moreover, these material were combined with a rigid, metallic, often horizontal structure that served as a framework, such as a bed, steel panel, or steel dolly.” - Corrina Criticos, ‘Reading Arte Povera’, Zero to infinity arte povera, 1962-1972, ed. Richard Flood & Frances Morris (Walker Art Center & Tate Modern, 2001), pp. 78-80