Germano Celant

Celant is an art critic, best known for his work as Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and as contributing editor to the art reviews Artforum and Interview. Celant is known throughout the world for his elaboration of a theory on Arte Povera (begun in Genoa in 1967 in the Bertesca-Masnata Gallery). Throughout his career he has organized exhibitions such as Conceptual Art, Arte Povera, Land Art (Civic Museum, Turin, 1970); Environment/Art (Venice Biennial, 1976); Identite' Italienne (Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris, 1981); and The Knot Arte Povera (PS1 Museum, New York, 1985). He also organized a traveling exhibition entitled Il corso del coltello, which was shown in the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. In 1996 he was joint Artistic Director of the first Florence Biennial, dedicated to art and fashion, and in 1997 was the curator the 47th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennial.