Arte Povera - 5 examples

Arte Povera means impoverished or poor art in Italian. It was one of Southern Europe’s most influential and significant avant-garde movements in the 1960s. It encompassed the work of scores of Italian artists.

The distinguishing characteristic of their work is the extensive use of cheap or “poor person’s” materials like rope, paper, rags, rocks, and soil to take the viewer to the pre-industrial age.

Arte Povera’s practices were meant to challenge the established idea of propriety, value, and material wealth. Through their artworks, they echoed their opposition to the 1960s widespread mechanization, modernism, and industrialization. Artists of this movement shied away from painting in favor of sculptures.

michelangelo pistoletto, the labyrinth (1969-2007) corrugated cardboard

Michelangelo Pistoletto’s labyrinth at the Serpentine Gallery

Who is Michelangelo Pistoletto Michelangelo Pistoletto ranks as one of the most eminent artists of modern times. He was born in 1933 in the little Italian town of Biella. Since then, he has excelled as an artist. His works have redefined conceptual art. He has also played a leading role in furthering the popularity of …

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Michelangelo Pistoletto’s nude Venus inspects a rag of clothes (sfw)

Pistoletto’s rise to fame Born in 1933 in Biella, Italy, Michelangelo Pistoletto’s was among the first interpreters of the radical renewal of artistic language, both socially and aesthetically, in the early 1960s. He was also one of the protagonists of Arte Povera. Pistoletto began to gain recognition in the mid-1950s, particularly after creating his first …

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Alighiero Boetti’s beautiful Maps of the World

The story behind Boetti’s Maps of the World The Mappa tapestries are some of the most important works by Alighiero Boetti. Upon his first arrival in Afghanistan in 1971, Boetti began a continuous collaboration with local weavers to produce embroidered tapestries, using himself only as the referential artist but considering the works a creation of …

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