Jannis Kounellis (b. 1936)

Jannis Kounellis was born in Piraeus, Greece in 1936. In the early 60s, he entered the art world with a unique style of organized scripted letters that transformed into an interest in industrial and natural objects. His work is often associated with the Italian Arte Povera group of the late 1960s. Kounellis’s steel sculptures form a soft edge through the use of fabric and a purposeful asymmetrical construction. All of Kounellis’s works are “Untitled,” forcing the pieces to be described rather than referring to them by name. There appears to be a ready-made influence, in the vein of Duchamp or Man Ray, in some of his work. One example of this is seen in a piece where a sewing machine is suspended from the ceiling by a long steel rod.