Jannis Kounellis: Io sono un pittore, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis and organized in collaboration with the Archivio Kounellis in Rome, is the first exhibition to examine the work of Jannis Kounellis (Piraeus, 1936–Rome, 2017) through the lens of painting.
At the heart of the exhibition is a phrase the artist frequently used: “I am a painter.” For Kounellis, this statement was less a declaration of technique or medium than an affirmation of a particular way of engaging with reality. Spanning Kounellis’s entire career, the exhibition brings together more than 35 works dating from the late 1950s through 2014. Rather than following a chronological trajectory, it unfolds as a constellation of connections—between matter and weight, language and signs, memory and silence, scenes and icons.
This approach offers an alternative reading of Kounellis’s practice: one that is broader and more radical than the conventional understanding of the artist primarily as one of the leading figures of Arte Povera.
