Pistoletto
is considered one of the leading figures of Arte Povera. First of
all because of his works—from the Minus Objects, which
precede the official birth of the movement, to those that constitute
almost its emblem, like the pieces (for instance, Venus of the
Rags, 1967) containing the rags that were initially used by Pistoletto
for cleaning the mirror paintings and later in several actions by
The Zoo. No less important is his role as a catalyst (played since
the beginning of the sixties) of the group of Turin artists—and
as a bridge between them and those in Rome—which gave birth
to Arte Povera. The theorist of Arte Povera, Germano Celant, who met
Pistoletto during the exhibition of the Minus Objects in
the artist’s studio, acknowledges this role to him: “As
an intellectual his role was that of weaving a European network of
contacts among artists, facilitating the exhibition of Pino Pascali’s
Weapons [in January 1966 in Turin] and improving knowledge of Italian
art, by creating the Deposito d’Arte Presente (Warehouse of
Present Art) and, subsequently, an artist’s collection, as well
as making possible the dialogue among galleries, particularly Ileana
Sonnabend and Gian Enzo Sperone, which started off the circulation
of Pop Art in Italy and of Arte Povera in France, Germany and the
United States.” (Germano Celant, in Un’avventura internazionale,
Charta, Turin 1993,14). The collection to which Celant refers is that
of Arte Povera exhibited by Pistoletto in his home during 1971 and
now on display at Cittadellarte. |
