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Jannis KounellisItalian artist
Date of Birth: 23.03.1936
Country:  Italy |
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Biography of Jannis Kounellis
Jannis Kounellis was an Italian artist of Greek origin, and one of the founders and leading figures of Arte Povera. He was born on March 23, 1936 in Piraeus, a port city near Athens, Greece. In 1956, he moved to Rome, where he has lived ever since. He received specialized education at the Roman Academy of Fine Arts.
Early Career
Kounellis held his first solo exhibition while still a student. Titled "L'alfabeto di Kounellis," it took place at the Galleria la Tartaruga in Rome in 1960. Since then, Kounellis has consistently exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. In the late 1990s, he became a professor at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts.
Contributions to Arte Povera
Kounellis entered the realm of contemporary art in the late 1960s as one of the founders and leading figures of Arte Povera. From 1958 to 1960, he created a series of paintings called "Alphabets," using letters, numbers, typographic symbols, and road markings. These works were exhibited during his first solo show, where Kounellis sang the numbers and digits depicted on the canvases, turning the exhibition into a performance.
Like many artists in post-war Italy, Kounellis believed that traditional painting was linked to a repressive political past. Therefore, he turned away from painting to find new approaches that were not associated with the use of traditional materials. Utilizing materials such as charcoal, iron, stones, sacks, ropes, and tree fragments, Kounellis, like other Arte Povera artists, created a form of anti-commercial and anti-formal art with strong artistic and social critical undertones. In 1967, Kounellis participated in the historic group exhibition "Arte Povera e IM Spazio" at the La Bertesca Gallery in Genoa.
Innovative Artistic Approaches
Iron, coal, and sacks continue to be among Kounellis' favorite materials. The artist enjoys working with surfaces as a starting point, whether it be paper, walls, floors, or large plates covered in iron. In the late 1960s, Kounellis began incorporating live animals into his art. One of his most famous works included horses exhibited at the L'Attico Gallery in Rome in 1969.
People also started appearing in his installations, adding performative elements to his work. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kounellis used gas burner flames and traces of soot from fire on walls and other surfaces in his installations. He expanded his repertoire by incorporating smoke, shelves, trolleys, blocked openings, coffee beans, and other objects related to commerce, transportation, and economy. In 1975, Kounellis started using casts of classical sculptures.
In recent years, Kounellis returned to painting, combining his earlier approaches with new artistic explorations.
