Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

In the mid-1960s, various Italian artists began to exhibit together under the banner “Arte Povera,” or “poor art,” a term invented in 1967 by the art critic and curator Germano Celant. The 13 principal artists associated with this movement—Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario and Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini and Gilberto Zorio—were mainly interested in the intersections of art and life, of nature and culture. They expanded the fields of painting, sculpture, drawing and photography, and created the first “installations” in the history of art, as well as performance works and actions. Arte Povera retraces the history of this movement, from its birth in Italy to its spread across the world, through a large selection of major works by the 13 main protagonists.