art povera - informational

Arte Povera, meaning poor art, is a style of modern art that started in the 1960s in Italy.   Artists of this specific style had a goal; this goal was to draw a connection between art and reality while using everyday objects.  The artists were known for creating  “impoverished art."  The reason for the start of this movement was a result of the anger that came about in Paris as schools kept a strict education policy.  Not only that, they had an issue with capitalism and consumerism.  This anger is what lead artists to mesh art and reality by using everyday objects to create an art form.  

A lead artist of the movement was Michelangelo Pistoletto.  Pistoletto was born in Biella, Italy in 1933.  He began working for his father around the age of 14 and afterwards developed his own style of painting, which resulted with his famous mirror paintings.  These paintings were made of photographed people and steel plates.  It took Pistoletto several tries before he found the right materials.  For example, at first he tried used aluminum sheets.  His final solution that worked for him was to turn stainless steel into a mirror and then take the photograph of the person, trace it and use a brush to paint on tissue paper a life size version.  After this, Pistoletto worked on sculptures.  These sculptures are what really made his stand out as an Arte Povera artist.  However recently he went back to his mirror paintings and had an exhibition to display his more recent works.   Some of Pistoletto's most famous works are Man With Yellow Pants, Man With Shirt, and Prost. N.5.