Page 20 - Studio International - November 1972

materials and situations, from wool to coal, and spite of their constant diversification one from
from birds to fire. another. Despite the brevity of its span,
Before 1966, Michelangelo Pistoletto Pascali's work influenced other young artists
created a vast gallery of anonymous humanity thanks to its intense inventiveness. Pascali
in his mirror paintings, a series of works begun was essentially a sculptor who invented a new
in 1962. This is a linguistic operation that aims role for sculpture, rather than posing for
at the realization of three-dimensional himself the problems of sculpture and their
perception on the two-dimensional surface of further evolution. He elevated sculpture to the
pictorial space as well as at the elimination of level of a landscape for myth. One might of
the surface itself. The persons and things course observe that this is a role for sculpture as
represented — dealt with in colour as in any old as Mayan and primitive sculpture in
normal photographic process and then dropped general. The difference is that Pascali
into a calm and impersonal atmosphere — were introduced it into the modern asphyxiating and
chosen in terms of their function as objects. anonymous world of the big city, among the
There was a table, for example, and also a wall of mortal techniques (and it is perfectly proper to
bricks. In 1964 we find what is perhaps give such a description of his 'cannons') that he
Pistoletto's most 'conceptual' work. He used a turns with happy irony against the Moloch of
series of sheets of Plexiglas to decompose the technology. It is in terms of this role that one
elements of the painting — the image, the best understands his references to nature and to
surface, the wall, the surrounding space childhood. It was an attempt to reach the Eden
reflected in the mirror. And he then composed of here and now that interested him, not nature
them into an equal number of analytic and not the state of childhood. But once this
situations. These works have never been either attempt has been recognized and understood, it
accepted or understood. The change that goes beyond the range of any critical treatment
Pistoletto underwent in 1966 thus found its of his art.
origins not only in creative needs, but also in Pop iconography dominates his first mature
moral considerations and in a reaction against works of 1964 — the series entitled 'Pieces of
the marketing laws that condition the laws of Woman'. He made a woman's behind, the
creation. The act is political as well as linguistic. torso of a Negro woman in her bath, a pair of
The fact remains that if there is any Italian lips. These initial shaped canvases become true
moment that anticipates the current atmosphere and proper sculptures. The 1965 series of
of conceptual research aimed at the `Weapons' is made up of cannons, missiles,
Giovanni Anselmo Fading Out 1970
Projector with legend 'fading out' on iron block understanding of the nature and function of art, bombs, and machine guns all constructed in
Galleria Sperone, Turin this moment is the period of Pistoletto's wood and mechanical waste in full scale. By this
Plexiglas works. time Pascali was the master of an original
Pistoletto came to original conclusions about The making of art thus becomes a technique technique and an original vision. A year later,
the nature of art, and particularly about the of behaviour, a way — a political way — of the incomplete constructions of the weapons
nature of painting. Kounellis was working in stepping outside art history and art historical abandoned the techniques of bricolage for those
terms of continual contaminations, and Pistoletto linguistics with its externally imposed critical of ,modelism'. The 'Fake Sculptures' are
analysed and then separated the elements of schemes. For Pistoletto it was a matter of constructed on raw canvas or painted on slabs
painting. Generally speaking, these two creating objects that did not represent him but of wood. They are sculptures of exotic or
directions are what distinguish the Roman through which definitively externalized prehistoric animals (a dinosaur, a bucrane, a
artists from the artists based on Turin. On the perceptions became liberated. In 1966 he wrote rhino, a giraffe, a dolphin, etc.) and they are
one hand, there was an art of realization in that 'they are not constructions but `fake' because they articulate themselves in
terms of theatre or event, open to extra- liberations', and went on to say 'I consider each separate pieces — the 'Reconstruction of the
artistic considerations. On the other, there was of these things to be not one more object, but Dinosaur' is in sixteen elements — to be arranged
an art concerned with the internal processes of one less object'. This method of operation was in theatrical situations. In 1967 he did the
the aesthetic object — an art in which the general shared by Pascali. For Pascali it was a question `Natural Elements' : variable environments with
perceptions of the world, the aesthetics, are of using brief but intense cycles of work to elements of real earth and real water in addition
closed within individual and for the most part enclose the ever-different needs of the to hay and artificial reconstructions of the sea,
esoteric artistic systems. imagination. Both went beyond consistent and rivers, ploughed fields, etc. This 'Reconstruction
Jannis Kounellis began by passing from consequential discourse and abandoned of Nature' continued into 1968 and enriched
pictorial sign to pictorial happening. From 1961 themselves to the constant renewal of itself with other materials such as synthetic
to 1964, his paintings abandoned their letters perception. And this obviously implies fibres, steel wool, and acrylic fur. These
and signals painted in black and became experimentation with new techniques, often themes and techniques were declared in the
background surfaces for silhouettes of roses, several at the same time, that permit the free very titles of the works that were shown at the
either outlined or held on by snaps. The idea of variation of the creative results. While Pascali 34th Venice Biennale shortly before the artist's
theatrical background was then intensified by concentrated upon sculpture and infused it with tragic death: Aesop's Feathers, Lianas, Mats and
the appearance of live birds in cages as frames both the technique and spirit of 'modelism', Penelope's Canvas. His posthumous works —
for vast pictorial compositions. At the same Pistoletto discovered himself to be an actor and including a group of agricultural tools that he
time, Kounellis became the author of set up a theatrical group for naive, popular, had collected in his studio — confirm his
ambiguous and poetic theatrical actions. The and picaresque shows, and then went on to use primitivistic orientation in this period.
next step was the exhibition of a live parrot on a literature, cinema, and television. In Luca Patella's film SKMP 2 (a
trestle hung from a painting. This is the first Pino Pascali died in September 1968, and his documentary on actions by Kounellis,
symbol of Kounellis's adventurous voyage to the death gave an even greater sense of unity to a Mattiacci, Pascali, Patella, and Sargentini) we
sources of ethnology in an almost group of works that remain homogeneous, find Pascali's last and one of his most
archaeological alignment of primitivistic without hesitations, and rich in echoes even in significant testimonials. On the edge of the sea,