Jannis Kounellis

Jannis Kounellis
1936-2017
Untitled
1979
Crushed charcoal on paper with scratching.
27 9/16 x 39 3/8 inches (70 x 100 cm)
Gift of the Modern and Contemporary Collectors Committee, 2016.
© Jannis Kounellis / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
2016.11
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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