cover image Kounellis

Kounellis

Gloria Moure. Rizzoli International Publications, $70 (310pp) ISBN 978-0-8478-1241-7

The often disquieting installations of Greek sculptor Jannis Kounellis defy easy explanation. An iron panel crawling wth sewing machines and lit with propane torches; a spring mattress ablaze with solid-fuel tablets beside an identical mattress holding rats in cages--are these parables of absurdity, protests over the human condition or eruptions of unforseen meaning? The opaque essays in this visually provocative volume by Moure ( Marcel Duchamp ) and other scholars circle around Kounellis's ambitious environments, which include live horses, real trains and slabs of hanging beef. Many of the playfully surreal images--cupboards densely packed with boulders, windows with iron panes--recall Rene Magritte's three-dimensional paintings. Also included are the artist's prose poems, manifestos and ruminative outpourings describing his hermetic art as a search among the shards of history to resurrect human value and cultural traditions. (Mar.)