Michelangelo Pistoletto

Michelangelo Pistoletto was born in Biella in 1933. He is an artist, painter, and sculptor, as well as a key figure and protagonist of the Arte Povera artistic movement. Through research on self-portraiture conducted in the 1950s, he arrived in the early 1960s at the creation of Mirror Paintings, which directly incorporate the presence of the viewer and the real dimension of time into the artwork. With these works, he quickly achieved international recognition. Between 1965 and 1966, he produced a set of works titled Minus Objects, considered fundamental to the birth of Arte Povera, of which his Venus of the Rags, created in 1967, is considered one of the most emblematic works. A promoter of "creative collaboration" since 1968, during the 1990s, with Progetto Arte and the creation of Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto and the University of Ideas in Biella, he put art in active relation with various areas of the social fabric to inspire and produce a responsible transformation of society. In 2003, he began the most recent phase of his research, the Third Paradise, which over the following decades became a large collective and participatory work. In 2022, his most recent book, The Formula of Creation, was published, in which he retraces the fundamental steps and evolution of his entire artistic journey and theoretical reflection. In 2025, the Gorbachev Foundation presented Michelangelo Pistoletto's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. He has participated thirteen times in the Venice Biennale, four times in Documenta in Kassel, and has been a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His works are present in the collections of major modern and contemporary art museums. For a more extensive biography, presentation of his work, complete list of exhibitions, artist's texts, and bibliography, please refer to the artist's official website: www.pistoletto.it