At the end of 1967 the Genoese critic, Germano Celant, emerged with a published manifesto of illustrative exhibitions in Genoa (1967) and Bologna (1968), all bearing the title"Arte Povera" (poor art). Taking certain cues from Beuys these Italian artists offered up certain mineral tokens of biological life cycles and used them as an alternative to the manufactured subject matter of Pop. Also, the totally unneccasary giant Canvases used by the artists of the period, and the huge commercial base of the Galleries, Promoters, and Agents were all viewed, by the Italians, as superfluous to the act of artistic creation. A call of back to basic and inexpensive ephemera of materials was seen by some as an interesting polarity to the New York ideal - a challenge from a less materialist Europe. But, more interestingly, Celant was advancing a more direct notion of povety, a deliberate impoverishment of pre-existing codes of meaning, a further reforming of what was now considered tradition. American art partook of the abstract system of industrial production and distribution which governed modern consciousness. These systems were available to linguistic description and to artistic representation. The aim of Art Povera was to remove the "re" from "represent," to force the viewer to confront the naked reality of the object.

Andy Warhol, Silver Disaster, the artist with the Capital Realist hair-do, the manager of The Factory, Union Square, not square at all, or was it number 11, Flingerstrasse, at 8 p.m. (bring your own wine, cheese provided). What can we say about him, or what can't we say about him, nothing is sure, or unsure, even the date of his birth, surely Mrs Warhola knew, or didn't know, or wasn't sure, perhaps she was in on it, she never said. He found that most precious thing in art, meaning in meaninglessness, and never even bothered to tell anyone. His life was a giant canvas, an unfinished work, in fact it continues to this day, even after his death - the thing he feared more than anything. But whatever, or whoever, he was, his work changed art forever, and remains one of the greatest wells of inspiration. His work continues to grow, even after his death: see his paintings at famous Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, USA.