Poor Art | Arte Povera: Italian Influences, British Responses

'Arte Povera' - literally 'poor art' - was an Italian movement born out of the socio-political upheval of the late 1960s. The term was coined by curator and critic Germano Celant to describe the likes of Alighiero Boetti and Giulio Paolini: artists who had an unfussy, matter-of-fact approach to art making. Fifty years since the first exhibition of Arte Povera, this show celebrates its Italian pioneers whilst exploring how British artists used the style to reject the constraints of art school instruction from the 70s onwards.