Tre alberi

1968-1985

Mixed media

Variable dimensions

Two ash trees and one aulder tree are planted in the museum space, out of context: that’s how Tre Alberi appears to the observer, trees with a rough appearance whose primitive structure Giuseppe Penone seems to have preserved. Yet, appearances are deceiving, as these trees are the product of painstaking engraving on wooden beams, consisting in retrieving the vital crevices of the bark.

Penone’s country origin permeates his work, deeply rooted in a relationship of equality between Man and Nature. His exploration of natural processes and the relationship between Man and the environment starts in the 1960s with his Alberi series: Penone engraves beams in order to extract the shapes of tree trunks “buried” within, thereby inverting the industrial process.

The Tre Alberi series of sculptures created by Giuseppe Penone belongs to the Pinault Collection. The sculpture was first shown at the “Prima Materia” (“Raw Material”) exhibition at the Punta della Dogana.
Exhibitions