Jannis Kounellis
1936-2017
Untitled
1979
27 9/16 x 39 3/8 inches (70 x 100 cm)
Crushed charcoal on paper with scratching.
2016.11
Gift of the Modern and Contemporary Collectors Committee, 2016.
© Jannis Kounellis / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Notes
Kounellis was associated with the Italian arte povera movement of the 1960s, which emphasized the use of simple, everyday materials in art. He frequently used fire and carbon-based media such as charcoal and coal in his drawings, sculptures, and installations, as allusions both to mythology and industrialization. In this work, Kounellis used a sharp tool or stylus to incise the delicate outline of a human face into layers of crushed charcoal. He compared it to a drawing made on the surface of water, which lasts for only a moment before dissipating.
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Century Drawings
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