A celebration of the first works in porcelain Penone has created, among
the largest pieces of porcelain ever produced at Sèvres
A major figure in the Arte Povera movement of the late 1960s, the
renowned Italian artist Giuseppe Penone (b. 1947) is known for his
exploration of the relationship between art and the natural world in a
body of work that includes sculpture, performance, works on paper, and
even garden design. His first works in porcelain, the exquisite disks
presented here, draw attention to the moment of touch--the convergence
of surface and skin--that underpins so much of his work.
Published to accompany a special exhibition of works by Penone organised
by New York's Frick Collection, this new volume comprises eleven
porcelain disks that the artist made during his 2013 collaboration with
the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, the influential porcelain factory
founded in the 18th century. A continuation of his Propagazioni
(Propagations) series, begun in 1995, which includes various media, each
disk bears the imprint of one of the artist's fingertips. One of them is
in gold, its imprint a variation on the artist's index finger. Never
before presented to the public, the disks are installed in a gallery
adjacent to a porcelain at the Frick's temporary home on Madison Avenue,
kindling a rich artistic dialogue which is further explored in this
volume.
