Having moved permanently to Rome since the late 1950s, Kounellis made his debut with large paintings in which he outlines words, letters, numbers, directional signs that stand out on monochrome surfaces welcoming the visual signals of the urban context in the context of pictorial languages. Starting from the end of the 1960s, his analysis of the relationship between the structure of artistic practice and the sensitivity of existence and historical consciousness expresses with great lyrical pathos the tension and alienation of contemporary society and the fragmentation of debate and cultural production, resulting in the elaboration of a personal and revolutionary artistic language as in the famous work with twelve live horses at the Galleria L'Attico in Rome in 1969 and in the large installations that use natural elements or objects that refer to everyday life such as real people and live animals , stones, succulents, the fire given off by oxyhydrogen flames, carded wool, coffee powder, jute bags empty or filled with grains, fragments of copies of classical sculptures, oil lamps, iron shelves and rails. In the installation created especially for the Madre, the room dedicated to him is blocked longitudinally by a large iron structure, which lets the light shine through monochrome colored glass, like a contemporary and critical version of the windows of the great Gothic cathedrals and of the centrality of the role of art in their time. A large rusty anchor rests its weight, even metaphorical, on the floor, creating a chain of references to the historical role of Naples overlooking the sea and its representation in the history of art, not only in the local area.
