Easel Detail with Picture Michelangelo Pistoletto

Michelangelo Pistoletto is one of the leading exponents of Italian arte povera. The basis, both conceptually and physically, for his most emblematic and widely known works is the silvery, reflective surface of a mirror, onto which Pistoletto paints objects and figures or places photographic images. The composition is in a constant state of motion, and changes depending on the surrounding space. His tendency to take everyday scenes as his subject matter, and to emphasise them by placing them on stylised surfaces, recalls the spirit of pop art, as does his use of photographic details. The real environment that appears in the mirror and the photographic image applied to its surface become virtually indistinguishable from one another. In the composition titled Detail of an Easel with a Canvas, the artist has given a new context to a well-known motif from the history of painting: we can see the back of a painting standing on an easel, a familiar trope from self-portraits and works of trompe l’œil painting, raising questions about the place and future of conventional representation in the age of the “dematerialisation” of art.