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Show Wednesday, The rise of Italy's Arte Povera By BLAKE GOPNIK , The Washington Post - WASHINGTON In 1428, in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, an artist called Masaccio usei the new rules of per- spective to make the world's first fully illusionistic painting1. From that moment on, Western art would focus on all the ways the visible world could come to life in art. ' - - But surely there's more to life, and art, than what meets the eyes? How about gravity, time, direction, growth, decay and all flie other crucial intangibles? don't they deserve an artist's time and thought? More than five centuries after Masaccio did his thing for sight, a flock of his descendants turned their attention to such neglected aspects of reality. For a fertile decade from about 1962, the 15 Or so artists of the loos9knit Arte Povera movement, based in Rome, Turin and Genoa, threw out all the rules and goals of theif great Italian predecessor. They struggled to rewrite everything that could be about, and art-maki- be. Starting from scratch, and moving into the unknown: That's the extraordinary project documented in "Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera a g breathtaking, touring show now at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum. Take one of the first pieces you encounter in the Hirshhorn show, titled "A Cubic Meter of Infinity." It was completed in 1966 by Michelangelo Pistoletto, the only Arte Poverist who made much of a splash in the United States. The work consists of a tidy cube, one meter across, made of six mirrors carefully lashed together so that their silvered sides face inward, with only slivers of reflecting surface showing at the edges. We see a sober and imposing piece of gray miniAmerimalist sculpture can jminimalism was Arte Povera's biggest competition at the time but we know that its insides are crowded with infinitude. I (first came across this piecte when I was young, before I'd been taught what great art was supposed to be, and it wasn't hard to see what the work was all about. My only complaint was that Pistoletto hadn't scratched a hole in the back of one of the mirrors, to let us glimpse all that infinity he'd trapped which, even if there were any light inside to see by, would only have ruined the conceptual perfection of his infinitely reflected nothingness. But this isn't really conceptual art, where the work is just an illustration for an idea that might as well be jotted down on paper. It is truly a materialization of infinity; like much of Arte Povera, it wants to bring us close as we can come to 1962-1972- ," mind-bendin- A grasping the ungraspable. Or at any rate, it comes as close to giving presence to infinity as any Renaissance painting could to giving us real access to the saints. This review may have just broken some kind of rule. It seems that every essay or talk on Arte Povera is supposed to launch with a discussion of the term itself, coined by curator Germano Celant in 1967, after the art form was already well underway. First you declare the phrase untranslatable even though "poor art" has almost exactly the same range of cryptic connotations as the Italian words and then you declare it indefinable, too. Maybe the problem is that Arte Povera isn't really a descriptive term at all. It is a proper noun, in the full sense of the word, used only to pick out one place and moment and a varied group of people, rather than to describe the kind of art that they produced. Just as Italians don't translate Johnny Cash as "Giovanni Soldi," and we don't take Federico Fellini and rename him "Freddy Cats," so the term Arte Povera has to stand unchanged and unexplained. It picks out a movement with a special personality within the history of art, but without any one, mission or unifying look. At most Arte Povera names a certain kind of radical creative character a kind of total creative rebel that Italy, with its almost oppressive history of classic art, was unusually likely to turn out. It's the kind of rebellious character that says, "Let's throw out everything our parents said art had to be about and see if we can still make objects that mean something." In this country, Arte Povera has never had much recognition. The Hirshhorn's new show, which fills the museum's entire second floor, should fix that. It reveals huge depth and range in Italian this short-live- d movement. By comparison, some of the same era's most touted American experiments in art come off looking tame and unambitious. And if you didn't know when they were made, many of the vintage pieces now in Washington could pass as fine examples of today's most forward-lookin- g creativity. It's hard to think of any V ' V - ,: Post LOIS RAIMONDOWashingtun Plstoletto's "Three Girls on a Balcony" reflects other art and visitors nearby. LEO (July 22): Don't both-- , er trying to hide something from your mate. Be honest and clear the air. If you feel there is a chance of violence, have a friend go with you. 2 show this so little that has repetibig tion and that sticks so well single-moveme- 21 April 19): Don't your personal papers. Keep information close to your chest. You must be sure not to donate more than you can really afford. 5 stars TAURUS (April 20): Your , high energy should be spent pleasing your mate. You should have a heart-totieatalk with family and find out exactly what the problems are and how you can help. 3 stars GEMINI (May 21 June 20): Your abilities and your talents are in sync with the work requirements. You should be able to make notable contributions that will help you win points with employers. 4 stars CANCER (June 22): You can make some quality purchases today. Don't be afraid to call old friends and find out what they're up to. You can make physical changes that will enhance your appearance. 3 i nt stars in memory. Each of the nearly 150 works on view, by 14 different artists, has its own peculiar charms and quirks that set it off quite clearly from its neighbors. One of the purest, most thinkers and makers of Arte Povera was pared-dow- n Giovanni Anselmo. A 1971 piece called "Invisible" is just a slide in a projector, turned on and pointed out into the exhibition space. There's nothing to see the art is quite invisible until you happen to stroll by at just the right distance, so that your clothing can act as the work's temporary screen. At which point, if you're attentive, you notice the Italian word "visibile" in little white letters floating on your clothes. This is truly visibility reduced to its purest components: a collection of light rays momentarily brought into focus to spell out their simple presence, then allowed to scatter off, ungraspable and invisible again, into the cosmic mix. There is more here than first meets eye or mind, just as the Old Master pictures we first grasp as "portraits" or "still lifes" can turn out to be much more than records of dead e people and fruits. One series by Giuseppe Penone began as a suite of massive wooden beams, long-gon- t. VIRGO (Aug. 22): You can make financial gains. Let only those you trust in on your intentions. Allow yourself to enjoy what you have created, and don't feel guilty. 4 stars LIBRA (Sept. 230ct. 22): You can make career moves or receive more responsibility and higher pay if you put forth an effort. Your performance will create new opportunities. 4 stars SCORPIO (Oct. 21): You will find that you have gained popularity and respect. Now you can rely on the strong force of allies you've established to take over some of the less critical jobs. 3 stars SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 21): You may want to start your own business, but don't quit your present job. Work longer hours until you can support yourself. 2 stars CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): You can meet new partners if you attend community meetings. Your interest in the area that surrounds you will put you into a leadership position. 3 stars AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Fe18): Don't get involved in idle chatter or dilemmas that are none of your busi- ness. Someone afraid to speak his or her mind can easily drag you into a precarious position. 4 stars PISCES (Feb. 20): Get together with people who are well informed in areas you have an interest in. It will be beneficial for you. 2 Mussat Sartor Paolo Anselmo's granite and lettuce commentary on decay and gravity is part of the Arte Povera exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum through Jan. 20. Below, Giovanni Anselmo's "Invisible" is just a until slide projected into air a visitor becomes its screen. milled from the hearts of ancient trees. Meticulously following the grain in the lumber, the artist whittled down through layer after layer of the outer, older wood, revealing the twiggy sapling that each beam started out as many years LOIS RAIMONDOWashington embedded in the uncarved plank below, to show both what the sapling grew up to become and the starting point. This is a lovely, cryptic statement about human labor, both artistic and industrial, and the way that nature gets wrapped up in it , or unwrapped, in this case. Alighiero Boetti, who died in 1994 after years of working far from home with Afghan and Pakistani weavers, made an sculpture that plays with pictureness. His 1969 "Nothing to See, Nothing to Hide" is a mas- art-work- against the stars It takes wall. Masaccio's famous idea 's almost-abstra- Post sive window frame in metal and glass, three panes by four and each a meter square, leaned flat before. Some part of the young wood is always left that pictureiare a window on the worlcf, ahd-sees what happens if you make that window real, but get rid of the world beyond. CINEMARK AT PROVO & LKilitW..l.rrcCT;liHl:M'gB Im. Ibis. .m Cauaa f Sr. flM I Jaavuai Inn, Sm. kniiltlt SWEET HOME ALABAMA ct MILE MOONLIGHT W0 1155225450 ABAH00N 725 950 EVEUASTRK ITKK N MtlMWUTOUIIX SWBTHOMIAUUIU 4O555593O 450 915 1235(10 PG) 1225245455705925 720955 (PG-1- MOST RED DRAGON 115 )015 HKMIIUIiS MOVS FOCUS ,11502104X 9:50 TUES 1220400730 JOHJUb 1215 240 500 745 1015 2 (G) 12:45 4:30 7 15 OPEN S WED CAPTION 116 8 PLAYS IN PLACE OE SHIP 1205230505735 I; US 1230 250 510 750 1(H) 1:00 S 7:00 PUNCH CHARLY. 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