Giorgio Griffa

The exhibition presents works which, to a large extent, refer to the golden section, taking into account its mathematical aspect rather than the formal aspect of the classical world, thus paying attention to the fact that it creates an endless series of numbers. The result is a formal synthesis which shows that the real cannot be caught. In this way, it’s included in the constants of the nearly forty-year cycle of Griffa’s work.

Opening: September 30 - 6.00 pm

Biography Giorgio Griffa was born in Turin in 1936, and he still lives and works there. He's one of the main exponents of a movement that was generically called Anti-Form, which started by the end of the '60s. In Italy, the movement which referred specifically to painting was called Pittura Analitica or Pittura Pittura. His paintings are made up of signs deprived of meaning and interrupted which leave essential traces on canvas. The memory of paintings overlaps with the artist’s memory. Giorgio Griffa's works are made up of canvas without frames, on which colors become the means of an action, and traces become the effects of thought. His works hang directly from the walls. This separation from the classic elements of painting suggests an idea of transit, of flow, of movement and, by passing through the paintings and then through the surrounding space, it gives a sense of the finite, the non-finite and the infinite.

Other than his participation in numerous national and international exhibitions devoted to aniconic painting, it's worth mentioning, among his most important presentations, ‘Prospect’ 1969 and 1973 in Dusseldorf, ‘Processi di pensiero visualizzati’ Junge Italianische Avantgarde at the Museum of Lucerne in 1970, his solo room at the Venice Biennial in 1980 as well as his participation in the exhibition ‘Contemporanea’ in Rome in 1973, ‘Geplante Malerei’ at the Kunstmuseum in Munster in 1974, ‘L'Informale in Italia’ at the GAM in Bologna in 1983, ‘Astratta’ at Palazzo Forti in Verona in 1988, ‘Aspetti della Pittura Italiana’ at the Museo di San Paolo in 1989, ‘Pittura Italiana da Collezioni Italiane’ at the Museo di Rivoli in 1997. In November 1991, an extensive retrospective was presented at the Pinacoteca Comunale of Ravenna. In November 2001 and in January 2002, the GAM of Turin presented two important exhibitions: the first one included works created by the artist between 1968 and 1973 while the second one presented a series of works that belong to his ‘rosa e violetto’ cycle.

His relationship with Galleria Fumagalli began in 1995, when his one-man show was presented and a catalogue with texts by Giovanni Maria Accame was published. Still in 1995, Galleria Fumagalli curated the edition of Di segno in segno, with texts by Giorgio Griffa and Martina Corgnati, on the occasion of an exhibition at Palazzo Racani Arroni in Spoleto. The cooperation with the artist continued with the release of a volume devoted to Giorgio Griffa's work between 1968 and 1980. The book with texts by Marco Meneguzzo and Luca Massimo Barbero was presented along with the exhibitions that took place in 2005: at the Institute Mathildenhöe in Darmstadt, at the Kunsthalle in Aschaffengurg and at the Museo della Permanente in Milan.

Pressetext

Giorgio Griffa
Golden section and something else