The only normal generators of the Torelli group of a closed surface I can find is Powell's 1977 paper (where the presentation is a bit complicated and given essentially without proof). Is there any more enlightening or smaller presentation? I would also be interested in such a result for $\mbox{Aut}(\pi\_1(F\_g))$ (as opposed to $\mbox{Out}(\pi\_1(F\_g))$.


**EDIT** Actually, it seems that in the 1980 paper of Dennis Johnson he seems to show that Torelli is normally generated by a single element, which improves the Powell result.



Normal generation of Torelli
For the Torelli group of a surface, I gave a much easier and more geometric proof in my paper


MR2302503 (2008c:57049) 
Putman, Andrew(1-CHI)
Cutting and pasting in the Torelli group. (English summary) 
Geom. Topol. 11 (2007), 829–865. 


This proof was simplified quite a bit by Hatcher and Margalit in their paper "Generating the Torelli group" (to appear in L'Enseignement Mathématique).


For $\text{Aut}(F\_n)$, modern proofs can be found in the paper 


MR2336078 (2008k:57029) 
Bestvina, Mladen(1-UT); Bux, Kai-Uwe(1-VA); Margalit, Dan(1-UT)
Dimension of the Torelli group for Out(Fn). (English summary) 
Invent. Math. 170 (2007), no. 1, 1–32. 


and in my paper "The complex of partial bases for $F\_n$ and finite generation of the Torelli subgroup of $Aut(F\_n)$" with Matt Day.


