Did arte povera really exist? So asked critic and curator Dan Cameron in a bold 1992 article. Was it a bona fide, intellectually and aesthetically cogent “movement” (whatever that might be)—or was it a very successful critical ploy to bruit the talents of some loosely related Italians with a conceptual or post-Minimal bent, on a world stage largely dominated by US stars? Last fall, the UK’s Italian Festival 1999 showcased work by arte poveristi Alighiero e Boetti at the Whitechapel (see Schwabsky, p. 115) and Michelangelo Pistoletto in Oxford and Halifax, plus Mimmo Paladino at the South London