About this artwork
This work was one of the first wall pieces created by Kounellis. It is comprised of a flat, dry-stone wall built into a doorway in the gallery space. The stone is sourced locally from the place where the work is shown, requiring it to be remade in every new venue. The practice of using impenetrable materials, such as large stones, to block doorways, windows and other openings has been a recurring preoccupation of the artist’s practice since the late 1960s. Sometimes referred to as ‘blockages’, these works close off space and deny access to something hidden. The tension created by the placement of natural material of such weight and mass as stone, usually only found in exterior landscapes, within the white walls of a gallery, makes a visitor’s interaction with the space all the more dramatic.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Jannis Kounellis (1936 - 2017) Greek
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title:Untitled
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date created:1969
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materials:Stone
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measurements:Display dimensions vary
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object type:
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credit line:ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Presented by the artist 2010
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accession number:AR01136
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gallery:
Jannis Kounellis
Jannis Kounellis
Kounellis considers himself to be “a Greek person but an Italian artist”. Born in Greece, he moved to Italy in 1956 and studied at the ‘Academia di Belle Arti’ in Rome. Following a two year hiatus from painting, in 1967 he surfaced as an influential contributor to the newly emerging ‘Arte Povera’...