Janis Kounellis



Greek artist Jannis Kounellis (Born in Pireo, in 1936) is one of the major exponents of the movement 'Arte Povera'. He lives in Italy and his work is characterised by classical echoes and citations, which Kounellis intends as symbols of a lost language that is, however, necessary to understand the present.

The artist interprets the illy collection taking the cue from this reflection. Each of the four cups has the name of a heroin of the Greek tragedies - Electra, Antigone, Fedora and Persephone – hand-written on the outer surface of the cup, which shows fragments of a doll – the head and the upper and lower limbs - whereas blots of black ink decorate the saucers.

The bottom of the Kounellis cups mentions "illy collection 2005", however the exhibition already started on July 14th 2004 and from that time the Kounellis set was exclusively available at the museum site of the exhibition and all around Greece. In Italy it was available from September through the e-shops of the www.illy.com site for the price of € 60.
year  2005
artist   Janis Kounellis
type   4 espresso cups, signed and numbered
copies  x?x
manufacturer
inside illy collection
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