Giovanni Anselmo, 89, daring Italian artist
Giovanni Anselmo, one of the funnier and more philosophical of the Italian artists making what critic Germano Celant indelibly named arte povera, or poor art, died Dec. 18 at his home in Turin, Italy. He was 89.
His death was announced by the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York, which represented him.
In 1967, Celant noticed that some members of the postwar generation of young artists were using humor, provocation, and unconventional materials to rebel against both older artistic orthodoxies and materialist pop culture. He coined the term arte povera in connection with a show he curated in Genoa, Italy, which included the work of Jannis Kounellis, Alighiero Boetti, and others. He then wrote a manifesto and began gathering other like-minded artists.
Mr. Anselmo, an early addition to the movement, was distinguished from his peers by his particularly thoughtful cast. His most famous work may have been “Senza Titolo (Struttura Che Mangia)” (“Untitled (Structure That Eats)”): two blocks of granite, bound together with copper wire and sandwiching a fresh head of lettuce. As the lettuce sagged, so did the smaller block, until finally the block fell and the greens had to be replaced — or not.
First shown in 1969, that sculpture exemplified a technique to which Mr. Anselmo would return often, and to great effect: juxtaposing two notionally opposed values — in this case, permanence and evanescence, or maybe gravity and whimsy — to reveal that they weren’t as distinct as they seemed. Even stone doesn’t last forever; on the other hand, so long as someone replaced the parts that wilted, the piece theoretically could.
His most elegant effort might have been “Particolare,” conceived in 1972 for a show at Galleria Gian Enzo Sperone in Turin. It consisted of one or more slide projectors projecting the word “particolare,” Italian for “detail,” in thick sans-serif letters. In one version, on permanent display at Magazzino Italian Art in Cold Spring, N.Y., a single projector sits on the floor, too far from the wall, so that the word becomes visible only when a visitor sticks a hand or leg into what appears to be simply a diffuse beam of light.
Mr. Anselmo’s favorite material was stone — sometimes chunks salvaged from construction sites in Turin, often large granite blocks. For “Direzione,” he embedded a compass in the surface of a granite wedge.
Giovanni Anselmo, one of four children, was born Aug. 5, 1934, in Borgofranco d’Ivrea, Italy. He spent most of his life in nearby Turin and later divided his time between there and Stromboli. Before turning to conceptual sculpture, he was a self-taught painter and worked as a graphic designer.
Mr. Anselmo had a wideranging and markedly successful career that included numerous international exhibitions and appearances at Documenta in Kassel, Germany, and at the Venice Biennale, where he won the Golden Lion Award in 1990.
He was represented by the Lia Rumma Gallery in Milan and, for nearly 40 years, by Marian Goodman. He had recently participated in a group show, with Giulio Paolini and Giuseppe Penone, that traveled from Paris to Milan.
Survivors include his wife, Alda Anselmo; a sister, Sally Paola Anselmo; and a brother, Armando Anselmo.