Jannis Kounellis, Untitled 1971 performed

On Saturday afternoons, a cellist will perform Kounellis’ painting Untitled 1971, which features a brief passage from Bach’s St John Passion. These performances re-enact the original presentation of the work in 1971, when a cellist sat on a chair next to the painting at the Modern Art Agency gallery in Naples and interpreted the excerpt by playing it repeatedly over several minutes.

For these performances, the cellist will play for about five minutes, then pause for around ten minutes and then start again.

Kounellis’ early paintings of the 1960s were inspired by words and graphics found in street signs. He connected his practice with performance from the very start, thinking of the words and letters he painted as poems or scores to read out loud. He later introduced music in his paintings, installations and performances.

Kounellis often used the theme of music to reconcile memory with the present moment. The work Untitled 1971, which remains on display with an empty chair during the rest of the week, represents both a record of the original performance and the potential for it to be reactivated. Even without the musical accompaniment, we can read the score in our minds or imagine the music being played.

The score Kounellis reproduced on this painting is an excerpt from Bach’s oratorio St John Passion, originally composed in 1723–4. An oratorio is a musical composition for orchestra, choir and soloists, with lyrics based on the Bible or the lives of saints. Kounellis chose to reproduce a fragment of a musical piece with its own history, which can also play a role in an expanded understanding of the piece as activated by the public’s imagination.

Greek-born artist Jannis Kounellis (1936–2017) moved to Rome in 1956, where he became a central figure of arte povera. Artists associated with this movement used ordinary materials of both natural and industrial origins, hoping to bring the experience of art closer to everyday life.