Jannis Kounellis, Bells 1993. ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. © Jannis Kounellis.
Jannis Kounellis turns familiar materials, charged with history and meaning, into poetic assemblages
Jannis Kounellis (1936–2017) was born in the Greek port city of Piraeus, but lived and worked in Rome from 1956. His early paintings were inspired by words and graphics found in street signs, which he gradually reduced to letters, numbers and basic symbols arranged over plain backgrounds. Though he soon expanded his practice to include performance and sculpture, he considered himself primarily a painter. Whether making pictures or using materials and objects that share the same space as us as viewers, he aimed to create powerful images, mundane and strange at the same time.
In the late 1960s Kounellis became a key figure of the Italian arte povera (‘poor art’) movement. Artists associated with arte povera used ordinary materials of both natural and industrial origins and hoped to bring the experience of art closer to everyday life. At the time, Italy was undergoing a period of rapid social change, torn between industrial and agrarian life, tradition and innovation, antiquity and modernity. Kounellis’s works express this clash of values by bringing together contrasting elements such as raw wood and steel beams, or strings of colourful glass hanging next to a mound of black coal.
Many of Kounellis’s installations subtly change the architecture of the gallery, like the stones blocking the passage between two rooms. Some suggest the presence and actions of people: in a work bringing together painting, sculpture and performance, an empty chair lies waiting for a cellist to play a painted musical score. Other works carry strong associations both sensorial and cultural, like those including bells and coffee beans. These objects have a rich history, evoking sounds and smells familiar to many.
Robert Rauschenberg, Preview 1974
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Jannis Kounellis
Robert Rauschenberg, Revenue (Spread) 1980
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Jannis Kounellis
Robert Rauschenberg, Costumes for Trisha Brown’s ‘Set and Reset’ 1983
Set and Reset 1983 is an installation of Trisha Brown’s dance production of the same name that includes Robert Rauschenberg’s (1925–2008) original costumes and sculpture created for the stage-set, lighting by Beverly Emmons (born 1943) with Rauschenberg, and music by Laurie Anderson (born 1947), with optional archival documentation of Brown’s choreography being performed. Set and Reset is considered one of the most important works in Brown’s career and in the history of postmodern dance. Brown is best known as a founding member of the Judson Dance Theater in New York and as a choreographer of postmodern dance, with productions that have been staged in a range of venues internationally.
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Jannis Kounellis
Robert Rauschenberg, Almanac 1962
Rauschenberg began making silkscreen paintings in 1962. He would screen-print images from books and magazines, along with his own photographs, onto the canvas, then apply painterly brushstrokes reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism. His intention was 'to escape the familiarity of objects and collage'. Like all these works, Almanac has no specific meaning or narrative. The images are organised in a loose, poetic manner, creating an impression of visual flux that allows the viewer to free-associate .
Gallery label, August 2004
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Jannis Kounellis
Art in this room
Robert Rauschenberg
Preview
1974
Robert Rauschenberg
Revenue (Spread)
1980
Robert Rauschenberg
Costumes for Trisha Brown’s ‘Set and Reset’
1983
Robert Rauschenberg
Almanac
1962