Germano Celant, 1940 - 2020

Jannis Kounellis, Senza titolo, 1967

Germano Celant died on 29 April 2020.
Celant had a long and distinguished career as a critic and a curator, notably at the Guggenheim in New York and the Fondazione Prada in Milan. But he is probably best remembered for coining the term Arte Povera ('Poor Art'). In 1967 he wrote a manifesto, Arte Povera: Notes on a Guerrilla War (Appunti per una Guerriglia), and subsequently organised, between 1967 and the early 1970s, exhibitions of work by the Italian artists he recognised as sharing an Arte Povera sensibility. These artists included: Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulo Paolini, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Gilberto Zorio.
He is memorialised here by a selection of works by the artists associated with Arte Povera.
Read obituaries here:
Franco Fanelli, The Art Newspaper
Jason Farago, The New York Times
Naomi Rea, Artnetnews

Giovanni Anselmo, Verso l'infinito, 1969

Alighiero Boetti, Mappa, 1979

Luciano Fabro, Italia d'oro, 1971

Jannis Kounellis, Cavalli, 1969

Mario Merz, Lingotto, 1968

Marisa Merz, Untitled (Living Sculpture), 1966

Giulio Paolini, Necessaire, 1968

Giuseppe Penone, Five Metre Tree, 1969-70

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Metamorfosi, 1976–2013

Gilberto Zorio,  Stella di bronzo con acidi e pergemena, 1978

Germano Celant, Arte Povera: Appunti per una Guerriglia, Flash Art, No.5, 1967