The Rose (La Rosa)

In the early 1960s, Michelangelo Pistoletto began screenprinting images on reflective surfaces, allowing for an exchange between reality and art. In these works, viewers witness themselves and their surroundings within the frame of the mirror (and therefore become part of the work), while the image depicted—in this case a vase with a rose on a table—is incorporated into the immediate environment. For Pistoletto, these works and others brought life into art and art into life, a central principle of the late 1960s Italian Arte Povera movement with which the artist was associated. In addition, the mirrored works incorporate time and movement into art. The printed images are static while the viewer moves around them, creating an unlimited number of variations in imagery. While time ticks on, the present moment is incorporated into the image of the mirror and becomes part of the work.