Lot Essay
Like other paintings from Kounellis' early years, the present work plays on our understandings of language, material and art. The word "paint" has associations for us with both the material and with the action of painting and, of course, with art. All these associations are presented together in this work in a deliberately ambiguous context so that we are unable to focus on any particular one and must consider the paradox and coexistance of all of them.
The word "paint" is painted in the style of an advertisement or a sign and is, of course, made up of paint itself. Underneath is a stream that is a common sign-painter's device that can also be seen to represent paint, but in this context - within the space of what is a painting itself - one cannot be sure and that is the intention. In isolating the word and the imagery of paint within what is itself a painting and by juggling their associative meanings within this space, Kounellis ultimately throws their validity and meaning into question.
In 1963, shortly after this picture was painted, Kounellis undoubtably found an answer to the questions posed by this picture, for he renounced conventional painting or what he called "forming" and began what he called his "silence". He went on to become the chief exponent of the Arte Povera movement which, although in terms of technique and media was a radical departure from the present work, did in many ways concentrate on extracting the beautiful and the extraordinary within the context of the everyday and the commonplace.
The present work is also unique among Kounellis' early letter paintings in that it is the only one in which an English-language word is used. This undoubtably reflects the enormous influence and the debt that Kounellis and many of his generation in Italy owed to the Pop imagery of artist's such as Johns and Rauschenberg.
The word "paint" is painted in the style of an advertisement or a sign and is, of course, made up of paint itself. Underneath is a stream that is a common sign-painter's device that can also be seen to represent paint, but in this context - within the space of what is a painting itself - one cannot be sure and that is the intention. In isolating the word and the imagery of paint within what is itself a painting and by juggling their associative meanings within this space, Kounellis ultimately throws their validity and meaning into question.
In 1963, shortly after this picture was painted, Kounellis undoubtably found an answer to the questions posed by this picture, for he renounced conventional painting or what he called "forming" and began what he called his "silence". He went on to become the chief exponent of the Arte Povera movement which, although in terms of technique and media was a radical departure from the present work, did in many ways concentrate on extracting the beautiful and the extraordinary within the context of the everyday and the commonplace.
The present work is also unique among Kounellis' early letter paintings in that it is the only one in which an English-language word is used. This undoubtably reflects the enormous influence and the debt that Kounellis and many of his generation in Italy owed to the Pop imagery of artist's such as Johns and Rauschenberg.