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拍品专文
Reaching two meters in height, Untitled, from 1987, is a staggering example of Jannis Kounellis profound relationship with his materials. The piece is a metal wall relief, a form which can be seen throughout his oeuvre and specifically in his entry to the Venice Biennale in 1988. Carefully composing the elements, upon the iron backing, Kounellis has aligned two circles of buttery wax held in place by steel rings and supports. As Angela Schneider writes, these metal panels give a ‘visual expression to hardness and sometimes even brutality, but they can also call upon painterly allurements and resemble abstract paintings’ (A. Schnieder, ‘Jannis Kounellis: The Labyrinth in the Neue Gallery’ in Jannis Kounellis: In the Neue National Galerie, Berlin 2008, p.35).
This synthesis of organic and non-organic substances creates a juxtaposition of materials that hints to the fluctuating and volatile nature of meaning in art. Many marks appear on the piece, some made by human hand, such as the curves traced into the smooth surface of the wax, and others created by natural forces over time, such as the oxidizing iron backing. We see here the potential both of human energy and of the energy of nature itself, but ultimately the earthly elements will always have a greater power than the transient human interaction.
Juxtaposing organic and inorganic materials, in Untitled the taut circular steel rings and the vertical lines that have been made across the iron – a very industrial action when placed against the spontaneity of the forms created by nature. Germano Celant, who coined the term Arte Povera to describe the group of Italian artists working alongside Kounellis from the late 1960s, writes that the artist used these materials to move from the ‘written language’ of art to a ‘physical language’, from the ‘'said” to the “unsaid”’. (G. Celant, ‘Jannis Kounellis’, in Domus, no. 515, October 1972, p. 55). Through the use of materials such as burlap sacks, coal, coffee beans, metal and wax, the artist creates a ‘slang’ of matter and thus the communication between the artist and viewer becomes less mediated and interrupted. This material aesthetic was equally embraced by other Arte Povera artists, such as Michelangelo Pistoletto, Giovanni Anselmo and Mario Merz, in their mission to break down the dichotomy between art and life. In Untitled, Kounellis has used every day, earthly elements to express and explore what is at the core of humanity by directly appealing to the perceptual sense of every individual.
This synthesis of organic and non-organic substances creates a juxtaposition of materials that hints to the fluctuating and volatile nature of meaning in art. Many marks appear on the piece, some made by human hand, such as the curves traced into the smooth surface of the wax, and others created by natural forces over time, such as the oxidizing iron backing. We see here the potential both of human energy and of the energy of nature itself, but ultimately the earthly elements will always have a greater power than the transient human interaction.
Juxtaposing organic and inorganic materials, in Untitled the taut circular steel rings and the vertical lines that have been made across the iron – a very industrial action when placed against the spontaneity of the forms created by nature. Germano Celant, who coined the term Arte Povera to describe the group of Italian artists working alongside Kounellis from the late 1960s, writes that the artist used these materials to move from the ‘written language’ of art to a ‘physical language’, from the ‘'said” to the “unsaid”’. (G. Celant, ‘Jannis Kounellis’, in Domus, no. 515, October 1972, p. 55). Through the use of materials such as burlap sacks, coal, coffee beans, metal and wax, the artist creates a ‘slang’ of matter and thus the communication between the artist and viewer becomes less mediated and interrupted. This material aesthetic was equally embraced by other Arte Povera artists, such as Michelangelo Pistoletto, Giovanni Anselmo and Mario Merz, in their mission to break down the dichotomy between art and life. In Untitled, Kounellis has used every day, earthly elements to express and explore what is at the core of humanity by directly appealing to the perceptual sense of every individual.