COMPLETED OFFERING: JANNIS KOUNELLIS

Released 26/07/2024 - 9 AM CET

Jannis Kounellis (1936-2017), born in 1936, in Piraeus, Greece, was a seminal figure in contemporary art, particularly known for his contributions to the Arte Povera movement. His innovative use of materials and exploration of social, historical, and cultural themes established him as a key artist of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Kounellis moved to Rome in 1956 to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti, where he immersed himself in Italy's rich artistic and cultural heritage. This move marked the beginning of his lifelong engagement with the European avant-garde art scene.

In the late 1960s, Kounellis became associated with the Arte Povera movement, a group of Italian artists who sought to challenge the commercialism and materialism of contemporary art. The term "Arte Povera," coined by art critic Germano Celant, means "poor art" and reflects the artists' use of simple, everyday materials to create profound and thought-provoking works. Kounellis's art during this period was characterized by its use of unconventional materials such as coal, burlap, steel, and live animals. His installations often combined these materials in ways that evoked a sense of history, memory, and cultural identity. One of his most iconic works is the 1969 installation "12 Horses," in which he brought twelve live horses into a gallery space, transforming the exhibition into a powerful, living artwork. Although most of his works were three-dimensional and comprised of ready-made objects (and sometimes even living things – horses, birds, and humans), Kounellis always insisted he was a painter first and foremost.

Kounellis's work frequently explored themes of displacement, migration, and the intersection of different cultures. His own experience as a Greek living in Italy informed much of his art, which often reflected on the broader human condition and the struggles of marginalized communities.

With a practice that lasted over sixty years, Kounellis was influenced by artists such as Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Jackson Pollock, and Franz Kline. The artist died in 2017.

Throughout his life, Kounellis was the subject of major retrospectives, including the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1980, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 1986, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía , Madrid, in 1996. Kounellis presented at international exhibitions such as the Paris Biennale in 1967 and in 1969, the Istanbul Biennial in 1993, the Sydney Biennial in 2008, and the Venice Biennale, where his work was exhibited nine times, in 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1993 and 2015.

His work is part of major public collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern in New York, the Guggenheim in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Francisco, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, to name but a few.

Recent Selected Solo Exhibitions: 

·    2024

"Jannis Kounellis: La Stanza Vede, Disegni 1973-1990", Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy

·  2023        

"Jannis Kounellis: Notte", MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome, Italy

"Jannis Kounellis", Cardi Gallery, Milan, Italy

"Jannis Kounellis in Six Acts", Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico 

·    2022

"Homage to Jannis Kounellis", Galleria Fumagalli, Milan, Italy           

"Jannis Kounellis", Gladstone Gallery, New York, USA

"Jannis Kounellis in Six Acts", The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA

"Jannis Kounellis", GAM, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Torino,Turin, Italy

"Jannis Kounellis: Gli Anni Sessanta", ML Fine Art, Milan, Italy

·    2021

"Jannis Kounellis", Lévy Gorvy Dayan, Paris, France

"Jannis Kounellis, Sarajevo 2004", Cologne Galleries, Cologne, Germany

·    2020

"Jannis Kounellis, Early Works", Larkin Erdemann, Zurich, Switzerland

·    2019          

"Jannis Kounellis", curated by Germano Celant, Fondazione Prada, Venice, Italy  

·    2018         

"Jannis Kounellis – Ashes and Gold", Gavin Brown's enterprise, 439 W 127th St, New York, USA

Recent Selected Group Exhibitions:

·     2024

"Xiella", Kewenig, Berlin, Germany

"By Way of: Material and Motion in the Guggenheim Collection", Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

"Stuttgart Sichten", Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

"Reflections On Surface", Galerie Klüser, Munich, Germany

"Mannheim Miami: The Left-Over-Collection: Part Two", Galerie Crone, Vienna, Austria

·     2023

"Meisterwerke Masterpieces Chefs-d'œuvre Capolavori", Galerie Karsten Greve, St. Moritz, Switzerland

"Carta Canta", Galleria Umberto di Marino, Naples, Italy

"1.5 Degrees", Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

"Une histoire intime de l’art", Collection Lambert en Avignon, Avignon France

"Roma 60", Sprovieri Gallery, London, UK

"Roma/New York, 1953-1964", David Zwirner, New York, USA

·    2022

"Making", Galleria Continua, Rome, Italy

"On Air: The Sound of the Material in the Art of the 1950s to 1970s", Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld,

  Germany

"Matter, Gesture, Imprint, Sign: The Graphic Work of Burri, Vedova, Kounellis, Paolucci and Benedetti,

  m.a.xmuseo, Chiasso, Switzerland

"Nove Opere", Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

"Vita Nuova: New challenges for art in Italy 1960-1975", MAMAC Nice, Nice, France   

"Naturecultures", Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy

"Public Domain", MOMus Contemporary, Thessaloniki, Greece

"Something New, Something Old, Something Desired", Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

"Scheme 50 :Una Galleria Fra Le Neo-avanguardie (1972-1994)", Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy

·     2021

"Grand Masters", Galerie Karsten Greve, St. Moritz, Switzerland

"Di Tutti I Colori", Galleria Continua, Rome, Italy

"Arte moderna e contemporanea. Antologia scelta 2022", Tornabuoni Art, Milan, Italy

"Humans Nature Politics. Joseph Beuys in the Context of the Collection", Haus Lange & Haus Esters     

 Museum, Krefeld, Germany

·     2020

"Outlooks on Art", Centro Botín, Santander, Spain

"Silent Revolutions: Italian Drawings from the Twentieth Century", The Menil Collection, Houston, USA

·     2019

"Entrare Nell'Opera: Enter Into The Work/Actions And Processes of Arte Povera", MAMC Saint-Étienne, France

"Children of Saturn", Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art, Rochechouart, France

"Paper Media: Boetti, Calzolari, Kounellis", Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, USA

"Landlord Colors: On Art, Economy, and Materiality", Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, USA

"The Italian Collection", Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark

"Entrare nell'opera", Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein

·   2018   

"Beyond Borders", Fondation Boghossian, Brussels, Belgium     

"Arte Povera. A Creative Revolution", State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

"Inside the collection - Approaching thirty years of the Centro Pecci (1988-2018)", Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy