This installation shot seems like a three-dimensional still life. A blue, monochrome painted canvas serves as a background. In the foreground is a metal bedstead with a white, uncovered mattress on it. On the mattress are, from left to right: two nuts, a carafe of water with a fish in it and an upright rose.

Travelling exhibition

Arte Povera. Works and Documents fromSammlung Goetz 1958 to the present

Sammlung Goetz holds one of the most important and extensive collections of Arte Povera, including early, typical and key works, work groups as well as an archive with photographs and documents about the movement. This international travelling exhibition confirms the relevance and meaning of Arte Povera for our age.

With Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini and Gilberto Zorio.

At the end of the 1960s, young Italian artists in Turin and Milan began to work with objects that were foreign to art, ephemeral and simple or everyday materials. The term 'Arte Povera' was coined by art critic Germano Celant, who organized a group exhibition in 1967 in Genoa under the title Arte Povera e IM Spazio.

Works of Arte Povera formed the start of Ingvild Goetz's intensive collecting activities; they remain one of the collection's main focuses. Ingvild Goetz had even started exhibiting artists from this direction in the 1970s, during her activities as a gallery owner. “I liked the unconventional methods of these artists in conveying their work. In addition, they reflected the European zeitgeist,” she says, explaining her interest. “Earlier, artists had gotten away from the canvas. But the real break came with Arte Povera.”

The Neues Museum Weserburg (today Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst) in Bremen is the first stop of this international traveling exhibition tour, which will end in 1999–2000 with a large two-part finale in Sammlung Goetz.

Exhibition dates:

Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
June 22 – September 7, 1997

Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nuremberg
October 2 – December 7, 1997

Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
February 14 – April 26, 1998

Museum für moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
June 19 – August 30, 1998

Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenborg
September 19 – October 31, 1998

Sammlung Goetz
Part 1: Works from 1958 to 1972 | July 23 – December 18, 1999
Part 2: Works from 1973 to the present | January 24 – May 20, 2000