Editing Arte Povera (section)

{{Short description|Italian art movement}}
{{More citations needed|date=April 2013}}
{{Infobox art movement
| name         = Arte Povera
| image        = KMM Merz 01.JPG
| alt          = 
| caption      = Igloo by Mario Merz, an example of Arte Povera
| yearsactive  = 1967–1980s
| country      = Italy
| majorfigures = [[Jannis Kounellis]], [[Mario Merz]], [[Michelangelo Pistoletto]]
| influences   = 
| influenced   = 
}}
'''Arte Povera''' ({{IPA|it|ˈarte ˈpɔːvera|lang}}; literally "poor art") was an [[art movement]] that took place between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s in major cities throughout Italy and above all in [[Turin]]. Other cities where the movement was also important are [[Milan]], [[Rome]], [[Genoa]], [[Venice]], [[Naples]] and [[Bologna]]. The term was coined by Italian art critic [[Germano Celant]] in 1967<ref name="veconomist" >{{cite news|author=J.U-S.|title=Arte Povera's radical simplicity|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2017/10/post-war-art|work=[[The Economist]]|date=3 October 2017}}</ref> and introduced in [[Italy]] during the period of upheaval at the end of the 1960s, when artists were taking a [[Political radicalism|radical]] stance.<ref name=MOMA>{{cite web|title=Arte Povera|url=http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10454|work=MoMA: The Collection|access-date=May 13, 2013}}</ref> Artists began attacking the values of established institutions of government, industry, and culture.

Some of the first exhibitions of artists associated with Arte Povera were held at the Christian Stein Gallery in Turin, run by [[Margherita von Stein|Margherita Stein]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Storia|url=http://www.galleriachristianstein.com/Storia.html|access-date=2021-12-03|website=www.galleriachristianstein.com|archive-date=2022-01-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120193056/http://www.galleriachristianstein.com/Storia.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The exhibition "IM Spazio" (The Space of Thoughts), curated by Celant and held at the Galleria La Bertesca in Genoa, Italy, from September through October 1967, is often considered to be the official starting point of Arte Povera.<ref name=MOMA /> Celant, who became one of Arte Povera's major proponents, organized two exhibitions in 1967 and 1968, followed by an influential book published by Electa in 1985 called ''Arte Povera Storie e protagonisti/Arte Povera. Histories and Protagonists'', promoting the notion of a revolutionary art, free of convention, the power of structure, and the market place.

Although Celant attempted to encompass the radical elements of the entire international scene, the term properly centered on a group of Italian artists who attacked the corporate mentality with an art of unconventional materials and style. Key figures closely associated with the movement are [[Giovanni Anselmo]], [[Alighiero Boetti]], [[Enrico Castellani]], [[Pier Paolo Calzolari]], [[Luciano Fabro]], [[Jannis Kounellis]], [[Mario Merz]], [[Marisa Merz]], [[Giulio Paolini]], [[Pino Pascali]], [[Giuseppe Penone]],  [[Michelangelo Pistoletto]], [[Emilio Prini]], and [[Gilberto Zorio]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Christov-Bakargiev|first=Carolyn|title=Arte Povera|year=2005|publisher=Phaidon|isbn=0-7148-4556-6|pages=17}}</ref>  They often used [[found object]]s in their works. Other early exponents of radical change in the visual arts include proto Arte Povera artists: [[Antoni Tàpies]] and the [[Dau al Set]] movement, [[Alberto Burri]], [[Piero Manzoni]], and [[Lucio Fontana]] and [[Spatialism]]. Art dealer [[Ileana Sonnabend]] was a champion of the movement.<ref name="veconomist" />