Germano Celant

Germano Celant (11 September 1940 – 29 April 2020) was an Italian art historian, critic and curator. He invented the term "Arte Povera" (poor art) in 1967 and wrote many articles and books on the subject. He was born in Genoa, Italy. 
Early life and career.
In 1974, Celant edited and curated the Catalogue Raisonné of Italian artist Piero Manzoni. He curated many exhibitions on Italian art, including "Identité italienne. L'art en Italie depuis 1959" (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1981), "Italian art, 1900-1945" (Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1989; with Pontus Hultén), and "Italian Metamorphosis 1943-1968" (Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1994). 
In 1997, he was the director of the Venice Biennale and in 2004, he curated the exhibition "Art and Architecture" in Genoa. From 1977, he was a contributing editor to "Artforum" and from 1991 he was a contributing editor to "Interview".
In 1988, Celant was appointed Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
On 29 April 2020, Celant died of COVID-19 in Milan, aged 80.