Michelangelo Pistoletto (born Biella, Italia, June 23th,1933) is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. His work mainly deals with the subject matter of reflection and the unification of art and everyday life in terms of a Gesamtkunstwerk.
Pistoletto studied art while apprenticing at his father’s restoration workshop, and in 1960, mounted his first solo show of figurative paintings and portraits at the Galleria Galatea in Turin. He rose to international prominence with his sculpture series Minus Objects (1966), which includes a set of columns and a two-dimensional table and chairs. The work, along with a series of mirror paintings, was awarded first prize in the São Paulo Biennale. Growing increasingly reclusive over time, Pistoletto withdrew his work from the Venice Biennale in 1968 due to the student riots. He has had solo exhibitions in institutions around the world, notably including the Tate Modern in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He lives in Turin, Italy.
In 2003, he received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale. In 2004, the University of Turin awarded him an honorary degree in Political Science. On that occasion, the artist announced what has become the most recent phase of his work: the "Third Paradise." In 2007, in Jerusalem, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in the Arts "for his constantly creative career as an artist, educator, and activist, whose restless intelligence has created visionary art forms that contribute to a new understanding of the world." In 2010, he wrote the essay "The Third Paradise," published in Italian, English, French, and German.
In 2012, he began promoting "Rebirth-day"—the first global day of rebirth—which is celebrated annually on December 21st with initiatives worldwide. In 2013, the Louvre Museum in Paris hosted his solo exhibition "Michelangelo Pistoletto, année un – le paradis sur terre." That same year, he received the Praemium Imperiale for painting in Tokyo. In May 2015, he received an honorary degree from the University of the Arts in Havana, Cuba. That same year, he created a large-scale work titled "Rebirth," located in the park of the Palace of Nations in Geneva, the UN headquarters.
In 2017, a text written by Michelangelo Pistoletto titled "Omnitheism and Demopraxy: Manifesto for a Regeneration of Society" was published. In 2021, the Universario—an exhibition space where the artist presents his most recent research—was inaugurated at Cittadellarte, and in December 2022, his latest book, "La formula della creazione", was published; in it, he traces the key stages and evolution of his entire artistic career and theoretical reflection. He lives in Turin, Italy.
