The Arte Povera movement, emerging in 1960s Italy, redefined artistic expression by challenging traditional materials and methods. While bronze has been a staple of sculpture for millennia, Arte Povera artists subverted its conventional use by incorporating unexpected, often ephemeral materials into their bronze works.

Giovanni Anselmo famously combined bronze with organic elements like lettuce, creating tension between permanence and decay. Jannis Kounellis fused bronze with fabric, coal, or live animals, transforming static sculptures into dynamic, multisensory experiences. These juxtapositions questioned art's commodification while celebrating material authenticity.

The movement's name—"poor art"—reflects its embrace of humble, industrial, or natural materials. Artists like Giuseppe Penone embedded twigs or leaves into bronze casts, preserving organic forms in metal. This technique created striking dialogues between nature and artifice, industrial and organic.

By merging bronze with unconventional elements, Arte Povera sculptors expanded sculpture's conceptual boundaries. Their works became philosophical statements about time, transformation, and material hierarchies in art—legacies that continue influencing contemporary sculpture today.