JANNIS KOUNELLIS, catalogue (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1991)

JANNIS KOUNELLIS, View, Vol.1., nr.10 (Point Publications, Oakland 1979)

For a while I liked Kounellis for his melancholic, poetic use of gas flames, soot, coal, etc. One of my favourite pieces has always been the 1969 set of little platforms bearing coffee grounds suspended from hooks one above the other. Later, however, when he started using iron beams and sheets, I felt his work to be too bombastic and oppressive.
The issue of View contains an interview with Kounellis as well as a few reproductions, including a beautiful 1979 print (aquatint with photoetching) showing flowers grouped around a black square, which neatly encapsulates Kounellis's links with Romanticism and Suprematicism.