Jannis Kounellis. Senza Titolo

Senza Titolo, by Greek artist Jannis Kounellis, is the sixth title of the Ivorypress series LiberArs, devoted to publishing artist books in a small format. In this book, Kounellis presents a series of monotypes created with second-hand coats, found in small flea markets and subsequently used to print on 100 x 70 cm standard sheets of paper. “The uncontrollable stain left by the coat soaked in black tar forces me to look at it as if a ghost on the stage of a theatre where a cry devoid of dialogue is performed, left without any expectations of an ending, whether good or bad, happy or ultimately absorbed in the drama,” writes the artist.

Jannis Kounellis (Piraeus, Greece, 1936) moved to Rome in 1956 and enrolled in the Accademia di Belle Arti. In 1967 he took part in an important collective exhibition entitled Arte Povera which gave name to an artistic movement. In recent years, his work has dealt with issues related to the artist as a central figure and to art as a civil example in contemporay society through formulations which are sometimes full of lyricism and, on occasions, charged with formal sobriety. Kounellis’ work has been exhibited worldwide. He has been the subject of large exhibitions in art centres such as Museo d’Arte Contemporanea DonnaREgina in Naples, Italy (2006) or the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany (2008), among others.