Oggetti in Meno (Minus Objects) 1965-1966 - Camden Art Centre

Michelangelo Pistoletto (B. 1933) is one of Europe’s most influential artists. For thirty years he has been associated with the leading developments in the visual arts, including Arte Povera and Nouveau Realisme.

Although he participated in many group shows in this country, this was his first one-man exhibition at a British public gallery.

Pistoletto rose to international prominence in the early 1960s with a series of works in which silhouettes were fastened to mirror-like, stainless steel surfaces; the viewer, reflected in the mirror, seemed to complete the composition.

With the Minus Objects, a wide variety of individual items assembled over a period of months in 1965-66, he pursued this exploration of the relationship between the artist, his art and its audience. References occur to domestic situations, and among the objects are forms familiar in everyday life – tables, chairs and lamps. Some have been appropriated by the artist, whiles others have been fabricated or improvised with readily available materials, such as cardboard, rags, mirror and plastic. Colour and shifts in scale add vibrancy to this important group of works.