GIORGIO GRIFFA

Biography

Giorgio Griffa was born in Turin in 1936, where he lives and works. Initially linked to Arte Povera, between 1967 and 1968 he started to develop his own language based on a working method that still characterizes his practice: raw canvases (jute, hemp, cotton or linen) without frame, placed on the floor, absorb the color in most cases dyed with water. With a performative and time-based approach, Giorgio Griffa has been forming his work depending on the canvas and the brush, relying on “intelligence of painting”; his essential and primordial signs derive from his fascination for quantum energy, spatial-temporal mathematics and golden section. Lines and brushstrokes are intentionally cut and the canvas is never filled with a well-defined object, which rather shows a temporal action, an evolving thought. During the ’80s and the ’90s, his signs became more complex but also gained a decorative function compared to the absolute essential forms of the ‘60s. Once established the basic grammatical rules, Giorgio Griffa continues to articulate his own language in different ways.

Among his personal shows held in institutions: Camden Arts Centre, London (2018), Fundação de Serralves, Porto and Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles (2016), Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (2015), MACRO, Rome (2011), Museo della Permanente, Milan and Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt (2005), GAM, Turin (2002, 2001), Loggetta Lombardesca, Ravenna (1991), Italian Institute of Culture, Cologne (1985), Kunstverein, Braunschweig (1980). Among the most important group exhibitions in institutions: Pinacoteca Albertina, Turin (2018), Museum of Contemporary Art – Castello di Rivoli (2017), GAMeC, Bergamo (2010), Kunsthaus, Zurich (2009), Museo della Permanente, Milan (2007), Italian Institute of Culture, London (2006), MART, Rovereto (2005), Academy of France, Rome (2003), Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna (1998), Kunsteverein, Frankfurt (1997, 1987), Loggetta Lombardesca, Ravenna (1990), Museo de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro (1989), Galleria Civica, Modena (1988), Alvar Aalto Museum, Jyaskyla (1985), Palazzo Reale, Milan (1984), Museum Padagogisches Zentrum, Munich (1982), Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona (1981), Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (1977), Internationaal Culturell Centrum, Antwerp (1975), Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia (1973), Museé d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1970), Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf (1969).

Giorgio Griffa took part in international events such as: Venice Biennale (2017, 1980, 1978), Rome Quadriennale (1999, 1986), Sao Paulo Biennale (1977). His collaboration with Galleria Fumagalli began in 1995 with a personal exhibition followed by the publication of a catalog with a text by Giovanni Maria Accame. Again in 1995 Fumagalli curated the book “Di segno in segno”, with texts by Giorgio Griffa and Martina Corgnati, on the occasion of the exhibition at Palazzo Recanati-Arroni in Spoleto. In 2005 the gallery curated the publication of the volume dedicated to his work from 1968 to 1980, with texts by Marco Meneguzzo and Luca Massimo Barbero, which accompanied the exhibitions at the Institute Mathildenhöe in Darmstadt, the Kunsthalle of Aschaffengurg and the Museo della Permanente in Milan. Again in 2005 Griffa exhibited in the group show “VISIONI, 20 artists in Sant’Agostino”. In 2006 the gallery opened another personal exhibition “Sezione Aurea e qualcos’altro” and in 2008 published the monograph “Segnando pitttura”, curated by Alberto Fiz. In 2012 the last solo show “Giorgio Griffa, works 1969 …”, was organized at Spazioborgogno in Milan.

Biography