Saturday 1 March 2014

Giuseppe Penone: The Hidden Life Within

The image below is one I have skipped past many times while surfing for 'woody wonders' but have only just got round to investigating further.

“My artwork shows, with the language of sculpture, the essence of matter and tries to reveal with the work, the hidden life within.”
–Giuseppe Penone


Giuseppe Penone (born April 3, 1947) is an Italian artist. Penone started working professionally in 1968 in the Garessio forest, near where he was born. He is the younger member of the Italian movement named "Arte Povera", Penone's work is concerned with establishing a contact between man and nature.


Guiseppe Penone carves out a young tree within an older tree to reveal its past, showing us what once grew inside so that it may now "live in the present." Inspired by the quiet slowness of growth in the natural world, the artist asks us to take a moment to stop and think about the concept of time and how there's a common vital force in all living things.



Penone has carved out the wood to reveal its past, showing the tree that grew inside so that it may “live” in the present. Rather than imposing a form, the artist — in contrast to the architect of this space — draws out an existing form.

The next image of  Guiseppe working within the space of this massive tree in my mind captures the enormity of the artists devotion to this piece.





15 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. It's all great and wonderful. I love art to the fullest, but I hope He's not cutting down live trees just for his own pleasure. Believe me when I say, I am an art lover, but the art of nature in itself is much more a beauty. And we are losing too much greenery as it is.

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    1. Good lord lady. How can you see amazing work like this and speculate that he's ruining the environment? Cynthia, I hope you didn't reproduce, because bringing humans into this world is the equivalent of cutting down a thousand acres of trees.

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  3. It's all great and wonderful. I love art to the fullest, but I hope He's not cutting down live trees just for his own pleasure. Believe me when I say, I am an art lover, but the art of nature in itself is much more a beauty. And we are losing too much greenery as it is.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's all great and wonderful. I love art to the fullest, but I hope He's not cutting down live trees just for his own pleasure. Believe me when I say, I am an art lover, but the art of nature in itself is much more a beauty. And we are losing too much greenery as it is.

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  5. I'm sure he's not killing old growth trees! Sheesh. You really thought that???!!!

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  6. How long did it take you to complete this amazing Carving?

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  7. How long did it take you to complete this amazing Carving?

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  8. I wish I would have known of his work earlier!! Our lovely old growth neighborhood has been seeing some development this summer, and my heart breaks to see some beautiful old trees get chopped down for building materials. What a wonderful way to have honoured their passing.

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  9. I was so so saddened when this exhibit left the Art Gallery of Ontario - it seemed made for the Italian Gallery (shown in the pics) and I thought it was part of the permanent collection after the big reno. How saddened I was when it left - nothing has filled the space since - now it's just used as a fancy espresso bar :S

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    1. That is sad indeed Shana, I would rather see art work than espresso bars any day, I wish I had the chance to see it :-(

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