ARTnews: Piero Gilardi, Arte Povera Artist Who Briefly Left the Art World Behind for a Career in Activism, Dies at 80

Piero Gilardi, an Italian artist associated with the Arte Povera movement who temporarily stopped making art altogether during the ’60s, has died at 80. His passing was announced on Monday by his gallery, Michel Rein.

“His commitments for decades to social, political and ecological issues are essential in today’s world,” the gallery wrote.

At the height of the Arte Povera movement, Gilardi became well-known within his home country and abroad, both for his sculptures that envisioned a total merger of technology and nature, and for departing the commercial art world just as his work had found a solid collector base. When he did so, he launched a career as an activist, returning to the gallery scene around a decade later.

Museums in Europe and the US have become increasingly interested in his work in the past two decades. For many Americans, a 2022 show at the Magazzino Italian Art museum in Cold Spring, New York, provided wider exposure to Gilardi’s practice. The show largely centered around Gilardi’s “Tappetinatura” (“Nature-carpets”), shaped polyurethane sculptures featuring images of natural objects like rocks, water, and grass.