Mulier Mulier is pleased to present Arte Povera #3, a group exhibition featuring works by Gilberto Zorio, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Penone, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Jannis Kounellis and Giovanni Anselmo. Arte Povera #3 brings together works by main protagonists of the Arte Povera movement and marks the third exhibition dedicated to the prominent Italian movement at the gallery, following previous exhibitions in 1994 and 2016.
Arte Povera emerged in the late 1960s in Turin and Rome as one of the most radical and transformative movements in contemporary art. The term was coined by Italian art critic and curator Germano Celant, who, in 1967, organized a pivotal exhibition that positioned Arte Povera as a counterpoint to the opulent and consumer-driven aesthetics of post-war art, seeking to reclaim a deeper, more spiritual engagement with the world, by using humble, everyday materials.
Germano Celant’s pioneering work was essential in shaping the collective identity of a group of young Italian artists in cities like Turin, Milan, Genoa, and Rome, who became associated with what he termed “Arte Povera.” This identity began with Celant’s 1967 exhibition ‘Arte Povera e IM Spazio’ in Genoa, where artists such as Jannis Kounellis and Giulio Paolini used everyday materials to challenge traditional art forms. The movement gained international attention with Harald Szeemann's 1969 exhibition, ‘When Attitudes Become Form’, which juxtaposed Italian artists like Boetti, Merz, and Kounellis with American counterparts, highlighting their shared sensibilities as a rather loosely connected generation.
To delve deeper into Arte Povera’s themes, the individual contributions of its artists reveal distinct yet interconnected ideas within the movement. A key figure, Gilberto Zorio, expanded Arte Povera’s material and symbolic language with works that embody transformation and purification, reflecting the movement’s rejection of static, traditional forms.
In the series Per Purificare le Parole (To Purify the Words), Gilberto Zorio draws on themes central to Arte Povera—chiefly, the rejection of traditional artistic conventions and the embrace of humble materials. Rather than simply creating static objects, Zorio designs works that seem to engage in an ongoing dialogue with their surroundings and reflect his fascination with transformation, purification, and the intangible aspects of experience. This is exemplified in the materials’ inherent instability: sulfur, for example, reacts visibly with light and air over time, undergoing subtle changes in appearance. The work Per Purificare le parole consists of a steel construction and a bronze mouthpiece. We might speak into the mouthpiece. Do words that pass through the sculpture via the mouthpiece emerge purified? Per Purificare le Parole reflects his attempt to symbolize purification, transformation, and renewal, using elements associated with ancient purification rites.
In the work of Mario Merz, both organic and mathematical patterns serve as a gateway to deeper
explorations of transformation and the intangible, resonating with the central themes of Arte Povera. In 1970, the artist delved into the concept of exponential growth, focusing on the Fibonacci sequence—a numerical progression identified by the medieval mathematician from Pisa. This series, where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 and so on), captivated Merz as a symbol of nature's inherent patterns and continuous expansion. On view in the exhibition is Mario Merz's work Ostriche senza saperlo, which translates to "Oysters Without Knowing It", a compelling example of his engagement with themes of nature, organic growth, and the interplay between the natural and constructed worlds. Created in 1977-1978, the work weaves together organic and industrial materials to explore themes of growth, resilience, and interconnectedness. By combining oyster shells with artificial elements, Merz emphasizes nature’s cycles, while the title hints at an unconscious participation in these processes, as both humans and other organisms unknowingly shape and adapt to their surroundings.
Expanding on the theme of unseen forces, Giovanni Anselmo’s Invisible series introduces a contemplative exploration of the intangible energies that shape existence. Anselmo, a pivotal figure in Arte Povera, delves into impermanence, gravity, and energy—phenomena that subtly yet powerfully influence our lives. In these works, viewers are invited to engage with an aesthetic of absence, revealing the hidden potential for transformation. In Invisible, Anselmo uses a lead block stamped with the word "Invisible" and removes the prefix "In," leaving a gap that transforms the inscription to “Visible.” This empty space between blocks hints at an unseen realm, made perceptible through the heavy material of lead. By highlighting the contrast between durability and impermanence, Anselmo invites viewers to perceive the invisible forces and temporal nature of existence, making the ephemeral subtly tangible through everyday, finite materials.
The work of Giuseppe Penone delves into the profound relationship between humanity and nature,
utilizing diverse media—pencil, ink, watercolor, even coffee and leaves. Each work captures organic forms and textures, embodying cycles of growth and transformation reminiscent of trees, rivers, and skin. For Penone, drawing is both action and contemplation, a physical imprint of thought that connects artist and nature, echoing Arte Povera’s focus on ordinary materials to explore deeper environmental themes. His recurring motifs—branches, fingerprints, and rings—reveal life’s interconnectedness and humanity’s place within it.
Renowned and widely celebrated for his transformative installations, paintings and drawings, Jannis Kounellis brings raw, industrial materials—steel, fire, burlap, and coal—into the gallery, challenging conventional boundaries between art and everyday life. His choice of elements like flame, soot, and stone lends his work a primal energy, transforming simple materials into metaphors for endurance, struggle, and the human condition—a reflection of his belief that art should be a force of life, evoking emotion and presence beyond the visual.
Pier Paolo Calzolari, a pivotal voice in the postwar Arte Povera movement, is celebrated for his poetic exploration of ephemeral materials and sensory experience, exploring themes of transience, memory, and regeneration. Combining elemental and organic materials with references to art history, Calzolari’s poetic creations engage in a dialogue between nature’s cycles and humanity, blending the alchemical with the contemplative.
Building on Arte Povera’s engagement with themes of transformation and continuity, Giulio Paolini takes a conceptual approach, focusing on perception, artistic identity, and the nature of art itself. Giulio Paolini often uses photo collages, which weave together images of classical sculptures, architectural details, and fragments of renowned artworks. These compositions reflect his deep engagement with art history and his exploration of the continuity between past and present, recontextualizing iconic motifs and layered narratives that question and celebrate artistic tradition. His collages function as both a tribute to and a deconstruction of historical imagery, opening a dialogue between visual fragments across time and encouraging viewers to reconsider the relationship between creation, memory, and meaning.
Arte Povera remains profoundly relevant today as it addresses themes of environmental consciousness, material culture, and the critique of consumerism—topics that have only grown more urgent in our era.The legacy of Arte Povera is deeply embedded in the art world's consciousness, thanks to influential exhibitions that have championed its core philosophies. Through these pivotal, the movement has proven its timeless relevance, engaging new audiences and artists in a conversation that is as vital today as it was over half a century ago.
The opening of Arte Povera #3 marks the third Arte Povera exhibition at Mulier Mulier, following previous editions in 1994 and 2016.