(born Piräus in 1936) Untitled (4-parts), 1987–88, iron, antique sewing machines, copper pipes, propane gas bottle, overall dimension 270 x 430 cm, (PP)

Photo certificate issued by the artist

Provenance:
Galerie Jean Bernier, Athens (late 1980s, directly from the artist);
Galerie Sarda, Barcelona;
Private Collection, Barcelona

Exhibitions:
Positionen heutiger Kunst, Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 23 June - 18 September 1988 with exhibition catalogue;
Opera italiana, Galeria Sardà, Barcelona, May 1990, exhibition catalogue with ill.; Merz + Kounellis, Fundación Jorge Castillo, Madrid, December 1994, exhibition catalogue with ill.;
Kounellis, Museo de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 19 November 1996 – 19 February 1997, exhibition catalogue, no. 16 with ill. no. 160

Published in:
Montse Frisach, Neix a Barcelona la galeria Sardà i Sardà, dedicata a l’art contemporani internacional, in: AVUI art, 3 May 1990;
Anna Guasch, Apostar per l’art consolidat en als mercats internacionals, in: DdB, 6 May 1990 with ill. Abel Figueres, El naixement d’una nova galeria. Obra italiana a la inauguració de Sardà i Sardà, in: AVUI art, 16 May 1990 with ill.

Literature:
Gloria Moure, Kounellis, Ediciones Pol¡grafa p. A., Barcelona, 1990, page 307, cat. no. 100 with ill. no. 12

“From 1967 onwards [Jannis Kounellis] demonstrated an increasing preference for shapes, objects and materials drawn from everyday life, and which he alienated and integrated into installations and performances, their role becoming strongly symbolic. (…) As a key representative of Arte Povera, Kounellis is concerned with dramatizing the relationship between structure and sensibility, between riddle and solution, a type of mystification of the materials and paintings. He takes a critical view of conventional cultural and artistic norms.” (Exhibition catalogue: Italian Art 1900-1980, Milan 1985, page 180) His works dating to the late 1960s are large. They require space, take up room, present themselves, change, expand.
They refer to the past and yet are only present for the moment. They are colourless but can still change their colouring. The apparently found objects transform themselves into structure. They are no longer images, but elements of real space. Jannis Kounellis demonstrates all this in his untitled work dating to 1987-88. Over 4 metres in width, it demands a large wall, and with its height and the additional parts, such as the propane bottle, one needs to stand at some distance, to watch the play of flames once the propane is lit.

The ancient sewing machines are relieved of their function as an aid in making clothes, taking on the role of framing the iron presentation area. Their regular positioning lends the work a balanced, calm momentum.
Tension and change are created through ignition: the propane gas projects colour variations in red, yellow and blue onto the “colourless” background surface. The temperature rises, the painting lives! Kounellis, like other artists of the Arte Povera movement, is also transferring the process of painting into real space. The work becomes a sculpture, demanding a different concept of space. His aim was to transcend borders, to widen the spectrum, but also to be contradictory.