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Kounellis’s late period, to which this work belongs, saw a syncretic return to the vocabulary
developed over the previous decades.
“The use of other materials constitutes a now liberating and previously revolutionary
way of going beyond the painting” (interview in Passepartout, 14th January
2011). The rejection of traditional techniques in favour of “humble materials”
has been an essential feature of his art since the 1960s, when he was a leading figure in the Arte Povera movement
theoretically delineated by Germano Celant. In the work exhibited here, the
sheet of bare iron serves as a support in place of a white canvas. It is fitted with
shelves on which six sacks of coal stand, each beneath a sheet of lead. The “poor”
elements chosen are actually rich in references to history, the mental and physical
work of human beings, their creativity and their demiurgic ability to transform
matter. (Transl. by Paul Metcalfe per Scriptum, Roma)