Arte Povera presents the beauty of natural materials, the force of gravity, life, physical tension, chemical reaction, mental energy. Arte Povera is a 1960s Italian art movement, and its artists used ‘poor’ materials: stones, wood, paper, which they combined with other industrial materials, like glass, mirror and steel. These materials weren’t assembled to represent anything but presented just as they were. What were these artists trying to say? The Arte Povera artists wanted to highlight the relationship between objects and the space they occupy. The 1960s was a period of protest and rebellion when, in the art world and beyond, people wanted to do something totally revolutionary.  Fed up of an art that screamed out political and social messages, these artists wanted to let things speak for themselves, and highlight the sense of harmony and balance. What were the battles of the 1960s actually trying to achieve? Freedom, peace and autonomy. And what can be freer than the presentation of pure elements, devoid of political, social or religious meaning? 

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