Michelangelo Pistoletto
12 July - 17 September 2011
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| © Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pozzo (Well) 1965
Cardboard, canvases and broken canvases
100 3 140 cm
Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella, Photograph: P. Pellion |
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MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO
12 July - 17 September 2011
Michelangelo Pistoletto is one of the pre-eminent contemporary artists
working today. Born in Biella, Italy, in 1933, Pistoletto was a leading
figure in the development of both Arte Povera and conceptual art. He
began as a painter in the mid-1950s, and in the 1960s received critical
acclaim for his series of Mirror Paintings. These works broke down the
traditional notions of figurative art, reflecting their surroundings and
the viewer as a part of the image, linking art and life in an
ever-changing spectacle.
In 1965 Pistoletto created his Minus Objects, a series of sculptural
pieces that investigated how objects transform into art works through
the ideas they express. This was an act of independence against the
prevailing art system; the Minus Objects were non-representational
anti-commodities constructed out of ‘poor’ materials. As the artist
stated at the time: ‘These are objects through which I free myself from
something – not constructions but liberations […] not pluses but
minuses’.
In the late 1960s, Pistoletto established The Zoo, a workshop open to
artists, filmmakers, intellectuals, poets and the public that centred on
collaboration and performance. The projects he worked on with The Zoo
were closely entwined with his individual studio practice, with both
combining material form, pictorial space and theatrical gesture.
For his exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, the artist will create a
new, site-specific installation using a form that he often returns to:
the labyrinth. Pistoletto’s exhibition will draw visitors through the
galleries, leading them via a winding maze to hidden installations and
sculptures. Responding to the architecture of the Serpentine galleries
and using an economy of materials, the exhibition will manipulate
visitors’ perceptions of space, making them an integral part of the work
itself.
In 1998, the artist invented Cittadellarte: Fondazione Pistoletto, a
centre for the study and promotion of creativity of all kinds. This
interdisciplinary approach is an intrinsic part of his goal to unite the
diverse strands of human civilisation through art. Pistoletto has
received numerous awards and prizes, including the Golden Lion for
Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2003.
www.serpentinegallery.org
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