Jannis Kounellis

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Jannis Kounellis was born in 1936 in Piraeus, Greece. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome.

In 1963, the artist introduced found objects in his paintings, among them live animals but also fire, earth, burlap sacks, gold. He replaced the canvas with bed frames, doorways, windows or simply the gallery itself. In 1967, Kounellis joined the Arte Povera movement of Germano Celant. In 1969, he exhibited real horses in the galleria l’Attico. Graudually, Kounellis introduced new materials in his installations (smoke, coal, meat...). The gallery environment was replaced with historical (mostly industrial) sites.

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