Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Giuseppe Penone

























I came across some really inspiring images of the work of Giuseppe Penone in preparation for a presentation I'll be doing on his work for school. Penone is an artist from Italy associated with the Arte Povera movement. I am mainly interested in his work with food (he grew zucchini in molds of his own face, among other things), but he is probably best known locally for his large-scale installation Cedro di Versailles, which is currently installed in the Gallery Italia corridor in the AGO with some of his other work. Amazing stuff.

"My work developed from thinking about the principle of sculpture: how it broadens to encompass the elements of nature. It is the material itself that suggests the piece, a sculpture expressed in the equal juxtaposition of the human being and nature because the human being is nature. (...)
My work is by no means symbolic. It is based on the process, the method. I try to produce the work by pursuing the process of its making, the meaning and logic of the material. The work is the coincidence of the processes that have been formed; in this sense it is an identification."

-Giuseppe Penone

More on Penone here:
http://www.exporevue.com/magazine/gb/penone_beaubourg_angl.html
http://www.ago.net/Giuseppe-Penone-The-Hidden-Life-Within
http://www.allisonhunter.com/Art/penone.html

2 comments:

Sonya Philip said...

His work looks amazing. Thanks for posting.

Tara Bursey said...

No problem, Sonya. If his work ever comes near you, you should really, really make a point to go. His work is even more compelling in person. Swoon!