Jannis Kounellis
Jannis Kounellis (1936-2017), born in Piraeus, Greece, lived and worked in Rome, Italy. Along with artists like Joseph Beuys, Mario Merz, Robert Morris and Richard Serra, Kounellis is part of a second wave of modernists who, in the 60s, radically expanded our vision of fine art with a new iconography of materials. As a pioneering figure of arte povera, Jannis Kounellis used "poor" materials – relics and fragments of Mediterranean history and everyday life – placing these objects in often startling juxtapositions, to create a new poetic context. With his practice, Kounellis evoked a twentieth-century incarnation of the mythic village blacksmith, crafting his environments from wood, coal, iron, and fire.
Jannis Kounellis Editions
Senza Titolo
1999
Senza titolo (Trittico)
1998
Blu, verde, viola, giallo
1998
Untitled (Wall Work)
1993
Untitled (Coffee)
1991
Untitled (Smoke)
1990
Edizione Notturna
1987
Untitled (Finestra)
1985
Frammenti di Danza
1982
Manifesto per un teatro utopistico
1979
Untitled
1977
Untitled (Match)
1973
Untitled (Agamemnone)
1973
Untitled
1973
Untitled (Elettra)
1972
Senza Titolo
1999
Lithograph from stone on rag paper, 59.5 x 80.5 cm (23½ x 31¾ in). Edition of 99, signed and numbered.
In this edition, Jannis Kounellis draws the viewer into a visual riddle: heads, faces, or a chaotic arrangement of stones? Instinctively, one tilts their head, as if trying to orient the work upright. This disruption of perception aligns with Kounellis’ artistic logic. Characteristic is the deep, dark black, applied with dynamic intensity, radiating beyond the edges of the image into the surrounding space. The painting becomes tangible – almost physically present. Kounellis, who celebrated the dissolution of traditional art conventions, saw painting as a point of departure for spatial expansion. In Senza Titolo, he achieves this with minimal means and maximum effect: the image remains a painting – and yet appears sculptural. Boundaries between artistic genres dissolve, and the viewer becomes part of the imaginative act.
EUR 900
Senza titolo (Trittico)
1998
From Sequences
Three lithographs, printed from one stone on Sicars rag paper with collaged newspaper, folded and printed over with a second stone. Each print 50 x 40 cm (19¾ x 15¾ in), each signed and numbered. Edition of 60.
In this edition, Jannis Kounellis employs elemental, culturally charged materials such as iron, coal, and fire – central elements of his oeuvre. The three sheets are almost entirely blackened with dense charcoal hatching, creating a profound sense of materiality. Placed upon them are folded newspapers, also blackened – an act of deliberate erasure of information that simultaneously generates a new, enigmatic visual language. Through the layering of mediated content and raw matter, Kounellis explores the tension between the written and the unspoken, documentation and forgetting, visibility and concealment.
Set EUR 3,500
Blu, verde, viola, giallo
1998
Lithograph from stone, photo litho and oil stick, on rag paper, 49.5 x 69.5 cm (19½ x 27¼ in). Edition of 90 + XX, signed and numbered.
Jannis Kounellis, whose work is often characterized by a reduced, colorless material aesthetic, deliberately embraces the expressive power of color in this edition. With the words blue, green, violet, and yellow, he references the tradition of painting and its tonalities, which are here celebrated in their pure presence. The intentional selection of these colors and their composition evoke associations with classical art history, while at the same time, Kounellis translates the painterly gesture into a new, conceptual context.
EUR 1,800
Untitled (Wall Work)
1993
From Wall Works
Two steel I-beams and two pairs of shoes mounted on a wall. I-beam 12 x 6 (5 x 2½ in) cross section, length according to the wall. Limited to 10 installations, with a signed and numbered certificate.
This edition by Jannis Kounellis was created as part of the group project Wall Works and is a permanent part of the collection of the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Kounellis artist conceived the work in such a way that two steel I-beams are cut so that, when installed, the outermost shoes are positioned 8 cm from the edges of the wall, while the two inner shoes are also spaced 8 cm apart from each other. The beams are to be mounted on the wall at a height of 160 cm (measured from the floor to the bottom edge of the beam). The rear half of each shoe must be concealed behind the beams.
EUR 25,000
Untitled (Coffee)
1991
Etching, lead, coffee beans, in galvanized iron box, 65 x 45 x 7.5 cm (26 x 18 x 3 in). Edition of 25, signed and numbered.
In this edition, Jannis Kounellis expands his repertoire of elemental materials to include lead and coffee – substances rich in cultural and symbolic significance. While lead, a heavy and malleable metal, evokes associations with protection, transformation, and alchemical processes, coffee stands for sensuality, transience, and everyday consumption. The juxtaposition of these contrasting materials creates a charged field of tension, reminiscent of an experimental setup. Through this precise staging, Kounellis explores the dialogue between materiality, history, and perception.
Untitled (Smoke)
1990
Etching, smoked glass, in galvanized iron box, 60 x 45 x 7.5 cm (23½ x 18 x 3 in). Edition of 25, signed and numbered.
In Jannis Kounellis' oeuvre – and in this edition – smoke, as the trace of fire, becomes a symbol of an elemental, ephemeral gesture. Kounellis’ engagement with Mediterranean culture and its myths evokes an association with Prometheus – the bringer of fire who bestowed knowledge and civilization upon humanity. The transience of smoke points to impermanence, while its presence renders the invisible visible and explores the boundaries between matter and immateriality.
Edizione Notturna
1987
From For Joseph Beuys
Page of newspaper mounted on rag paper, with collage of two collotype/silkscreen prints, 76 x 57 cm. Edition of 90 + XXX, signed and numbered, and 10 Artist's Proofs, signed, not numbered.
In homage to Joseph Beuys, Jannis Kounellis integrated one of his characteristic black-and-white drawings into the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera for this edition. One part of the newspaper thus becomes the carrier of the artwork, while another part – through a performative gesture of sacrifice –was torn by Kounellis. Through this symbolic act, the artist alludes to the transformative power of material and the radical renewal of art, which also defined Beuys’ practice.
EUR 1,200
Untitled (Finestra)
1985
Painted wood, hardware, photo-processed glass plates, 181 x 64 cm (71 x 25 in). Edition of 21, signed and numbered.
For this edition, Jannis Kounellis overlaid the transparency of the window with traces of smoke, which – marking the presence of fire – unfold a material presence. The soot stains transform the glass surface into an opaque pictorial plane, upon which two enigmatic compositions emerge. Within these traces lies the imprint of the artist’s face – a fleeting self-portrait that hovers between visibility and dissolution.
Frammenti di Danza
1982
Portfolio with 6 photogravures and one drypoint on Zerkall rag paper, 93 x 76 cm. Edition: 55, each signed and numbered out of 75, which was the originally planned edition size.
For this edition, Jannis Kounellis employed a process-based method that places the fragility and transience of the material at its core. In the print studio, he exposed glass panes to open flames, giving their surfaces a smoky patina and, in some cases, causing them to fracture into shards. He then drew directly into the soot-blackened layer with his fingers, creating an immediate, almost gestural trace of his artistic handwriting. Finally, metal printing plates were coated with a photosensitive layer onto which the treated glass or botanical elements were placed and exposed to light – a technique that powerfully reflects Jannis Kounellis’ characteristic interplay of materiality, impermanence, and pictorial immanence.
Portfolio EUR 6,000
Manifesto per un teatro utopistico
1979
Aquatint and photo etching on rag paper, 90 x 65 cm (35½ x 25¾ in). Edition of 35, signed and numbered.
The composition of this edition by Jannis Kounellis unfolds – true to its title – an associative narrative that evokes a cultural history of a utopian theater. Yet instead of an idealized stage setting, what emerges is a sequence of images depicting everyday scenes of human life. The juxtaposition of real-life moments with the concept of theater opens a critical reflection on bourgeois high culture: Is the theater a place of staged illusion, or does it mirror real life? It is within this dialectical tension that the subversive dimension of the work reveals itself.
Untitled
1977
Etching by Ernesto Tatafiore on rag paper, with a spot of coffee added by Kounellis, 49.5 x 35 cm (19½ x 13¾ in). Edition of 20, signed by both artists, numbered.
The Italian Transavanguardia artist Ernesto Tatafiore dedicates a portrait to Jannis Kounellis in the form of an etching. Yet this classical tribute is subversively disrupted: Kounellis himself leaves a coffee stain on the edition – a seemingly casual, yet symbolically charged gesture. The trace of the everyday enters the medium of printmaking, giving the work a performative dimension. His co-signature may be read as a conciliatory act of appropriation, but also as an ironic commentary on the construction of artistic authorship.
Untitled (Match)
1973
Lithograph on rag paper, with a burned match, 70 x 50 cm (27½ x 19¾ in). Edition of 90, signed and numbered.
This edition by Jannis Kounellis is a powerful example of his poetic material language. In Kounellis' oeuvre, fire is a recurring element – both destructive and transformative. Here, the burned match functions as a residue of action, a minimal yet potent trace of energy, gesture, and passage. It suggests presence through absence and becomes a symbol of memory, ritual, and fleeting intensity, aligning with Kounellis’ broader interest in elemental forces and existential narratives.
Untitled (Agamemnone)
1973
Offset lithograph and embossing on rag paper, 70 x 50 cm (27½ x 19¾ in). Edition of 90, signed and numbered.
This offset lithograph edition by Jannis Kounellis weaves together image, text, and myth into a layered visual narrative. The title alludes to the ancient tragedy of Agamemnon, a figure from Greek mythology associated with power, sacrifice, and destiny. As in much of Kounellis’ work, historical memory and contemporary reality intersect, using minimal yet symbolically charged elements to reflect on displacement, cultural inheritance, and the enduring relevance of myth.
