Giovanni Anselmo

Giovanni Anselmo (* August 5, 1934 in Borgo Franco d' Ivrea, Italy ) is an Italian sculptor and object artist and important artists of the Arte Povera.

Life and work

Giovanni Anselmo studied painting at the Art Academy of Turin and worked for a time as a painter. In the early 1960s, he had already tried to break away from conventional painting that for him " something unverwirklichbares " have.

As a sustainable artistic development he describes a natural spectacle as a key experience on a morning walk in August of 1965 on the island of Stromboli. He had suddenly realized here that he cast no shadow, the morning sun was in too shallow angle. His vision was would that be "invisible shadow " in infinity again with the light unite. The study of the phenomena and forces of nature became his artistic life goal.

Giovanni Anselmo artworks include his lifelong struggle with the forces of nature. He frequently used raw materials such as rough blocks of wood, iron bars, granite blocks and various other materials for its objects.

He took part in Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972 in the Department of Individual mythologies represent processes and at the Documenta 7 in 1982 as an artist.

Literature and sources

• Exhibition catalog: documentation fifth survey of reality - imagery today; Catalog (as folders ) Volume 1: (material); Volume 2: ( list of exhibits ); Kassel in 1972
• Documenta Archive (ed. ); Resubmission d5 - A survey of the archive to the documenta, 1972; Kassel / Ostfildern 2001, ISBN 3-7757-1121- X
• Catalog: documenta 7 in Kassel; Vol 1: ( Visual biographies of artists ); Vol 2: ( Current work of the artist); Kassel 1982 ISBN 3-920453-02-6
• Luckow, Dirk (ed.): Heavy metal: the inexplicable ease of a material; (on the occasion of the exhibition Heavy metal The Inexplicable Lightness of a Material, December 7, 2008 - 22. March 2009), Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Christian -Albrechts- University. Ostfildern, Kiel 2008 ISBN 978-3-7757-2378-7