THE SHARPER PERCEPTION Dynamic Art, Optical and beyond 14 Jan - 12 Mar THE SHARPER PERCEPTION Dynamic Art, Optical and beyond

GR gallery 255 Bowery, 10002 New York January 14 - March 12, 2016

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Set per intestazione su foglio Giovanni Granzotto Giovanna Zuddas verticale THE SHARPER PERCEPTION Alberto Pasini A special thanks to: di Giovanni Granzotto Conceived and realized by Paolo Covre Ugo Granzotto Set per intestazione su foglio Antonio, Fiorenzo, Gaspare verticale Beyond visual perspective www.gr-gallery.com e Giancarlo Lucchetta Flavia e Gianni Pasini di Alberto Pasini Set per intestazione su foglio Photograph credit: verticale Archivio Studio d’Arte G.R. Our thanks also go to: Stefano Barazza Pinuccia Agostini Maurizio Elia Tommaso Bet Giancarlo Gennaro Sergio Colussa art Works Cesare Salvadeo Franco Costalonga Kinetic Art, Optical Art and Programmatic Art Nadia Costantini Press office and public relations: Duilio Dal Fabbro Different perceptual developments Alberto Donaudi Luciano Dureghello

Transport: Maria Lucia Fabio Flavio Fasan Giorgio Ferrarin Inarte s.r.l. Lalli Munari

Simone Prestini Finito di stampare Insurance: Sandi Renko nel mese di dicembre 2015 Generali, Treviso Rossella Tornquist presso le Grafiche De Bastiani Godega di Sant’Urbano - TV Valmore Studio d’Arte © Dario De Bastiani Editore, Graphic Design: Eva Zanardi Vittorio Veneto 2015 Serena Chies ISBN 978-88-8466-466-2 Giovanni The GR Gallery is undertaking its Ameri- So, referring again to this area of inter- Granzotto can adventure with an exhibition dedi- est, many supporting, sponsoring and cated to the wide, articulated and even promoting initiatives for young worthy contradictory world of perception. The and talented artists have been actu- THE SHARPER choice has precise foundations in the alized to allow them develop their re- PERCEPTION very DNA of the Gallery, because its Ital- search in the varied perceptive fields: ian sister, the Studio GR, has certainly Marcello De Angelis, Mara Fabbro, been the reference gallery in Italy, but Paolo Radi, Emanuela Fiorelli, and two even perhaps in Europe, since the end Masters, Marco Casentini and Riccardo of last century and for all these years, De Marchi, still young, but who have al- to all the world of Optical and Program- ready drawn original paths, the former matic Art and to many aspects of the on the field of chromatic perception, the varied world of “perception”. latter on the level of a spatial- narrative The inexhaustible activity of this small vision. gallery located in the Italian province is This activity of promotion and salvage, partly represented by some focused ini- even commercial, starting from its birth tiatives: the salvage and the re-launch, that dates back at about 40 years ago, almost twenty years ago, of one of the transformed, more and more in time, most significant groups among the Eu- into an expositive activity, of organiza- ropean avant-gardes in the ‘60s, the tion and receivership of exhibitions in GRAV in Paris - Group de recherche art vi- nearly all the most important museums suelle -, with the re-launch of artists like of Europe and in many of South Ameri- Le Parc, Sobrino, Garcia Rossi and De- ca as well, taking advantage of the very marco in particular; the restart of one of tight connection with the writer of these the Italian masters of Programmed Art, lines, Giovanni Granzotto. Alberto Biasi, co-founder of the Group Now the time has come to make these N in Padua, both in a historical vision artists known, maybe with further new and in a comparative analysis with his discoveries and inclusions, also in the creations of the last years; the re-discov- U.S., also in New York, where exactly 50 ery of Masters who seemed abandoned years ago one of the fundamental bridg- even if they had been decisive on the es of the avant-gardes of every coun- field of the perceptive research, like the try was realized: The Responsive Eye. Venetian Franco Costalonga and Edoer That exhibition seemed to open a new Agostini, or Claudio Rotta Loria from frontier indeed, seemed to mark the end Piedmont; the re-enhancement of the of the “Informel”, not through the met- most important European urban plan- ropolitan coils of Pop Art, but for the im- ner of the color, Jorrit Tornquist, mostly petuous overcoming of the winds of Op- on the artistic level. tical Art, Kinetic Art, Programmatic Art 7 from the other continents. And in fact, present in Bowery a cross section of his alberto pasini Since the Middle Ages up to the dawn- shapes and images. Therefore the work those 99 artists represented the endless wonderful story, connected not only to ing of contemporary art - marked by the cannot be read in an objective and uni- facets of a new art, which found its com- technique, to science, to methodologi- Beyond visual second postwar period - apart from very versal way any more, neither in its visual mon denominator, its joining link, in the cal precision, but also to the amazing rare exceptions, artists have always pre- appearance, but it generates ambiguity perspective identification of the shape, better yet of fantasy of our eyes. sented to their potential spectators a fin- and interest in its user, who becomes an the shapes, plastic or of surface, through Of course “the sharper perception” does ished and static artwork, which, however integral part of it. Even if the artwork re- visual perception, and of the answer of not show the presumption of completing ingenuous or of avant-garde, sets up a mains the same in any context it is pre- the brain to those solicitations, both at a the whole dynamics of a re-discovery series of elements objectively and visu- sented, its perception by the observer conscious and at an unconscious level. with an exhibition, nor of representing ally testable by anyone could observe it. changes, because it is not a mere visual The spectators of that time had the priv- an entire movement: it prefers build up The only tool artists had in their hands, stimulus, but can arouse a specific re- ilege to admire works of Op Art, Cool Art, a little ideal bridge between The Re- in order to diversify their work and make action in the spectator. So it changes Visual Art, “New Abstraction”, Program- sponsive Eye and the present world of it opened to various interpretations, was substantially the users’ statute, trans- matic Art, etc… perception, and between the American leveraging the message. So here it is the forming them from simple observers Unfortunately the follow-up was not and European culture, from its point of insertion of anagrams, of unlikely rela- into essential parts of the artistic object. what the world would have expected view, with its preferences and with its tions or connections, of shapes belong- For the first time an artistic operation and the formidable quality of the per- temporary exclusions, through its par- ing to unrelated figurative universes, to does not want to imply symbolic mean- formers would have deserved. America ticular operative experience. reach the total transfiguration of reality, ings, but places itself as an immedi- remained tied up to other artistic move- Then there will be many other exposi- through Abstract Art, or the pure artis- ate impulse for perception, taken by a ments. But now, after that the interest tions to deepen a research that was tic gesture, liable to any interpretation, series of mental processes: intellective and the attention to this decisive page started 60 years ago and above all to through Informal Art. perception, organized in mathemati- of contemporary art have been relit ev- delve joyfully into the universe of the re- In the ‘50s, thanks to the new techno- cal patterns, inventing an aesthetic re- erywhere, some of us have chosen to lations between eye and reason. logical innovations and materials, to search, based on the optical law of si- radical scientific discoveries about the multaneous contrasts and on the theo- human eye and its perception of the vi- ries of colors. sual stimulus by the brain, the work of The first art movement that faced and, to art acquired a renovated vitality. In fact it be precise, invented this ingenuous cre- shook off the static nature of its own im- ative approach, was the Kinetic and Pro- age and gained a sparkle unconceivable grammatic Art, developed between Eu- before. Since that moment new variables rope and South America since the ‘50s. have started to play: the work of art does Supported by the Gestalt theories, the not appear in the same way any more to psychology of shape, a branch that any observer; it changes, in fact, accord- studies the mechanisms and the vari- ing to the changing of the observation ous facets of visual perception, the point, of the surrounding environment, movement experimented this teaching of the incoming illumination, or, in rarer as first. This vision spread at the begin- cases, is set to real movement through ning of the ‘60s, radically restyling the little engines or other technical tricks, figure of the traditional artists who then generating a continuous becoming of will interpret, through a privileged sen- 8 9 sibility, a series of events, creating com- po MID, Milan 1964; Opara, Vienna tators. It in fact embraces a collective tracks of Informal Art through the use of positions marked by an innate techni- 1964; Center for Advanced Creative imagination, very trendy at that time, light, together with the aim to create an cal ability and the unmistakable sign of Study, London, 1964. and reduces the distance between pure harmonic relation among man, nature their hands. The work so becomes impersonal in the art and design or fashion, cumulating and machine, through the juxtaposition Since then, the artists start to express season of Kinetic art, but, paradoxi- works of every kind, as far as fit for a of the traditional artistic methodologies themselves through unusual mechanic cally, more then ever before, typical of generic context of perception or move- to the use of the new technologies. artifices, inventing a technique which a determined personality. In fact, even if ment, sweetening the rigorousness of Even this “movement” does not rest can be reproduced through the simple it seems repeatable without a masterful Kinetic Art. upon rigorous theoretic principles, but assembly of various materials by anyone ability, it is changeable and fits in with At the same time, more isolated and less developed a new artistic conception, who can handle them, so misrepresent- various contexts in various ways, dia- structured from the scientific-ideological which many and various artists joined in ing the previous idea of the absolute logues with the environment and with point of view, other creative trends devel- the years, may be only for a limited pe- uniqueness of the creative motion and, the people observing it, dynamically oped, still basing their fundamentals on riod of time. Among them, we remem- above all, giving birth to great part of emanating its own artist’s aura. optic perception and on the total break ber Uecker, Mack, Piene, Aubertin and modern art, where the simple idea, the Not only the artworks that are set in real with any creative production belonging the Italian Simeti. In the same period, discovery, determines the artist’s impor- motion by an artificial induction and to the past. A group of artists developed a renovated artistic derivation, oriented tance. the ones that generate a virtual move- their research on the theories treated in towards such principles, developed, The first artistic achievements in these ment through a superimposition of lay- the Milanese magazine Azimuth and the founding however its own exclusivity fields are gained by few and isolated art- ers and the collaboration of the user are activities made in the very first ‘60s by on color. The researches are outside ists who work independently. The most ascribed to this wide characterization, the same gallery. Being rigorous, some of “optical” principles, concentrating famous, Victor Vasarely, is still bound to but also others actually “only” painted. of the artists who gravitated towards this on color in a scientific way, studying its the pictorial medium, while others, like I mean a series of works, often made by “project”, had already joined, partially applications on natural and artificial en- Bruno Munari, Nicolas Schoffer and the same artists who at the same time or “in toto” the principles of Program- vironment, the chemical laws that rule Pol Bury, start to experiment the use created the “boites”, which presented matic Art, others instead developed al- its preparation and the physical ones of never considered materials. At the a particular juxtaposition of shapes and ternative forms of expression, based on which determine its effect. Their atten- same time, other figures, thanks to a colours, simply drawn on the canvas the transformation of the original work in tion is still directed on the perception of particular social attitude, stop express- through traditional methods, generating an “artistic object”, elaborated through the chromatic matching effects on hu- ing themselves as single individuals and a strong visual friction and contrasting the invention of a particular formula, man eye. Among the protagonists, we tend to work in group, forming some so much each other to deceive the ob- easily repeatable, which aimed to purify can mention Frank Stella, Ennio Finzi, real artistic unions, that diffusely prolif- servation and sometimes simulate their what was done before, thanks to a visual Kuno Kuno Gonschior, and Jorrit Torn- erate in all Europe in that period and, in motion and their three-dimensionality. simplification of a work almost near to quist. some cases, directly sign their artworks Some years later, on the trend above aesthetic zeroing. The best known is- These art movements, that could be in common, as an outcome of a collec- described, Op Art (or optical art) is sues of these artistic theorizations are better defined as “shared artistic sen- tive work. born, concentrating on bi-dimensional Manzoni’s “Achromes” and Bonalumi sibilities”, radically revolutionized the Let’s remember among them: Gruppo artworks, particularly captivating and and Castellani’s “Estroflessioni”. In the world of Art almost sixty years ago, gen- N, founded in Padua in 1960; Gruppo edulcorated from the aesthetic point of same period, in Dusseldorf, very similar erating in the beginning a great amaze- T, Milan, 1960; Equipo 57, Paris, 1957; view, which simplifies and reduces the principles were embraced by the Zero ment and diffidence and then a shared GRAV, Paris, 1960; Nul, Amsterdam, complex “programmatic” principles, Group, whose research particularly con- acclamation in such a context; but, at 1962; Gruppo UNO, Rome 1962; Grup- approaching a wider segment of spec- sisted in the catharsis of color from the the end of the decade and with the pow- 10 11 erful hegemony of the Pop Art, they rap- ingenuous and well structured, placed concept of visual art in favour of a com- Since that moment, the gallery has al- idly finished into oblivion, except for few themselves in countertrend towards the pletely new and purified “object”, on the ways continued in the promotion of names. Anyway, they were celebrated currents of the moment, being known heritage of Azimuth and Zero, is embod- some of the best known masters and in in various forms and locations, from the mostly by the “authorized personnel”. ied by Paolo Radi’s works in perspex, the re-discovery of the less popular ones, Biennali of Venice and Paris, to Ducu- They have been rediscovered only now- semitransparent and three-dimensional, together with other critical-commercial menta in Kassel, to Nove Tendencje adays. or by Riccardo De Marchi’s mysterious activities. It is by now indissolubly bound first in Zagreb and then in Paris, gaining The greatest power of such art move- perforated metal or perspex surfaces. To to the aesthetic values and the theoreti- great favor even in this town and culmi- ments, now still acting, was the revolu- finish this overview, Marco Casentini re- cal principles which define its passion nating with the exhibition The Respon- tionary theoretical and technical innova- invents the perceptive coloration of the for creativity, based on visual percep- sive Eye, performed at MOMA in 1965, tion introduced in the world of art and, pictorial space, through meditated and tion, endlessly promoting the research then itinerant in Saint Luis, Seattle, Pas- as a consequence, its heritage. A sim- captivating interventions which expand and the presentation of younger artists, adena and Baltimore. Their most impor- ple intuition, lacking the support of any on environmental scale. At this level we who have collected the message and the tant exponents met there from all over practical ability or feature linked to its can notice how the artistic perception goals of the historical movements. They the world to give birth to a real dream, creator, has by now become the tradi- has evolved and is evolving endlessly, used them to develop unique aestheti- which unfortunately disappeared soon tional concept of work of art. More spe- almost succeeding in inventing an ideal cal and innovative results, even starting after to rise again only in recent times. cifically, I refer to that selected category movement based on it, in all its forms: by the same premises. This part of the Some of them are represented here in of artists who decided to interpret the the sharper perception. long and articulated working path, here our New York exhibition: Alviani, Biasi, concept of artistic perception through The Studio d’Arte G.R., founded in banally reduced for space reasons, has Cruz-Diez, Demarco, Le Parc, Morellet, new and various aesthetic facets. Each 1978, when, as already touched upon, carried to the opening of the GR Gallery, Schoffer, Stein, Garcia Rossi, Sobrino, “perceptive” trend quoted before found the interest for Programmatic Art had new location in New York of the historic Yvaral and Vasarely. a follow-up and a contemporary devel- disappeared for a long time, approached Italian Gallery. Actually the artistic research which was opment, carried on through ingenuous to these artistic modalities at the begin- As a consequence, the concept at the developed with these leanings did not technical and creative solutions. Just to ning of the ‘90s, a period of critical and basis of this exhibition inaugurating disappeared completely with the fin- quote some examples connected to our expositive total abandon. It succeeded the new season, is not only work, but ished interest of the international art exhibition: the branch more traditionally in creating important contacts and col- also research and artistic passion. It is jet-set, but proceeded stealthily, slowly related to the psychology of the shape, laborations with the most prestigious not only the ambition to display a com- through the years, carried on both by a sort of Programmatic Art’s child, is representatives of these movements, plete artistic collection about the quoted the members of the various groups, al- reinterpreted by Sandi Renko’s waved operations which started the re-launch movements and their contemporary der- ready dissolved, or by the solitary artists, surfaces and by Gabriele Grossi’s light of these trends. To this aim, important ivations, but to show, in short, the long and also by other artists who followed c-print, elegantly presented in Diasec. shows occurred in known international activity developed so far in this sector, the principles of these trends in the ‘70s A more decorative branch, instead, re- museum locations, like the Hermitage introducing to a new public, through a as well, forming some new groups like lated to an Optical trend, finds a theo- State Museum in St Petersburg, the faceted series of works, the dedication, the Italian Operativo Ti . zero, founded retical continuation into the more con- GNAM in Rome, the National Gallery the orientation, the passions, the crazi- by Claudio Rotta Loria in Turin, or Verifi- ceptual Injection Painting by Marcello in Prague, the Arts Pavilion in Zagreb, ness, perhaps the mistakes and above all ca 8+1, founded by Franco Costalonga De Angelis and into Nadia Costantini’s the MACBA in Buenos Aires, the Cathe- the numerous friendships of artists that in Venice. However, it is a matter of ar- Flussi di superficie. dral Museum in Barcelona, PalazzoTe have allowed it to grow up to the point to tistic phenomena that, even if they were The tendency to overcome the usual in Mantua. realize this dream and land in New York.

13 Kinetic Art, Optical Art and Programmatic Art Edoer Agostini

Edoer Agostini (San Martino di Lupari, metrical organization, using fine flexible 1923 - 1986) was born in 1923 in San lines reinforced by smooth colors to cre- Martino di Lupari (Padova), after begin- ate a virtual third dimension between ning work, he was called to fight in WWII figure and background. The end of the in 1943, during which Agostini was same decade saw the monochromatic taken prisoner and was later deport- rigor of “Perceptive Dynamics”. With ed, returning to Italy in 1947. Agostini’s the beginning of the 1980s, Agosti- artistic training was mainly self-taught, ni’s research found its place in “Relief based upon his experience working in Structures”, playing upon elements like the textile sector. full-empty/light-shadow, making shapes The artistic poetry for which Agostini is riverberate in the programmed space of known first took shape at the end of the the frame. In Agostini’s final production, 1960s. He collaborated and exhibited color becomes sharp and shrill, while with artists tied to the neo-constructivist space is made vibrant and communica- movement then in rapid ascent: Gruppo tive through luminous vibrations. From N in Padova, Gruppo T in Milan, GRAV 1971 to 1985, he was the creator and in Paris and ZERO in Dusseldorf. The untiring curator of the Biennale d’Arte in early 1970s saw the birth of “Superfi- San Martino di Lupari (Padova). Agostini cie”, the formal rigor of space in geo- died of a sudden heart attack in 1986.

16 Dinamica Percettiva, 1979, acrylic on canvas, 110 x 110 cm., 43,3 x 43,3 in. 17 Getulio Alviani (Udine, 1939)

Exhibited for the first time abroad in a lection and created the first room- one-man show at the Mala Galerija in environments with vibratile surface Ljubljana in 1961, followed by a second walls. He participated several times in show in 1962, at the Galerija Suvremene the Venice Biennale (1984, 1986, and Umjetnosti in Zagreb and Studio f in 1993). Retrospective shows have been Ulm . The same year, he participated in dedicated to him at the Tivoli Gallery the exhibition Arte Programmata in Ven- in Ljubljana (1996) and the Muzej Su- ice, Rome, Düsseldorf, and Leverkusen, vremene Umjetnosti in Zagreb (1997). and in Zero at the Diogenes Gallery in In 2000 a retrospective of his graphic Berlin. In 1964 he participated in the works was held at the Galeria Bielska exhibition Nouvelles Tendences at the BWA in Bielsko-Biala. In 2001 a mono- Louvre in Paris and in 1965 in the group graphic exhibition on his metallic sur- show The Responsive Eye at the MOMA faces was held at the Städtisches Muse- in New York , which acquired several um-Gelsenkirchen, as well as an exhibi- works from him for its permanent col- tion at the Mondriaanhuis Amersfoort.

18 Untitled, 1971, aluminum on cardboard, 11 x 11 cm., 4,5 x 4,5 in. 19 Between 2001 and 2003 he appeared sthaus in Graz and the Palazzo delle in Light, Movement & Programming, a Papesse in Siena. traveling exhibition at the museums of Over the last several years, he has dedi- Ulm, Mennheim, Gelsenkirchen, Kiel, cated himself to editing texts and curat- Schwerin, and Klagenfurt. In 2002 he ing exhibitions on the leading figures of appeared in the Buenos Aires Biennial. structural and visual research at the in- In 2004 he appeared again in Milan at ternational level, and executing various the Triennale; he exhibited at the Kun- architectural projects.

20 Untitled, 2000, aluminum and acrylic on board, 30 x 30 cm., 11,8 x 11,8 in. 21 Guido Baldessari (Venice – Italy- 1938)

Guido Baldessari has been painting since 1954, an outstanding cultural phenomenon and an im- participating to national and international events portant reference point for Italian and foreign art- since 1963. He dedicates himself to chromatic ists and intellectuals acting as protagonists in the researches about the light modulation and the avant-garde artistic research. Baldessari won the dynamic perception of shape as a becoming. first prize in the section Figurazioni“ geometri- He carries out optical nucleuses forced into a che” of the “1ª Rassegna di Arti Visive Città di closed outline of images in development, analy- Mestre” in 1981. The following year he was one ses truth and universal topics, absurd and un- of the founders of the Group “MATERIA PRIMA”, usual chains of awful perspective apparitions by an artistic movement that became one of the ref- a simultaneous clarity of silver drafting whose erence points of the artistic overview in the last spatial-phenomenal perception underlines the years. In 2002 he inaugurated the library of the interior reality metaphor and the genetic and Municipalità di Marghera with the exhibition “PI- mobile circuits of a becoming structural elabo- NOCCHIO 2000”. His eighteen tables compose ration. At the beginning of the ‘50s he attended the essential episodes of Pinocchio’s adventures. the free courses of the “Istituto d’Arte” in Venice. In 2005 he participated to the 51st Esposizione In 1965 he joined the group “DIALETTICA delle Internazionale d’Arte organized by the “Biennale TENDENZE” formed by the art critic Domenico di Venezia” with the exhibition of the group Mate- Cara and became official artist of Fiamma Vigo’s ria Prima, entitled “CREARE L’IMMAGINARIO”. “GALLERIA NUMERO”. “NUMERO”, together The artist was at the 53rd Biennale in Venice, tak- with its homonym magazine and the art galleries ing part in the collateral event “Krossing – Im- founded in Rome, Milan and Venice, represented maginodromo”, in 2009.

22 Superficie vibrante, 1977, acrylIc, cardboard, glass, 68 x 68 cm., 26,7 x 26,7 in. 23 Alberto Biasi (Padova, 1937)

is a leading figure of what is known in It- dimensional and chromatic effects. In aly as ‘Arte programmata’ and elsewhere 2006 his work was shown in the State as ‘Op art’ and ‘Kinetic Art’. In 1959, Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. aged 22, he co-founded the Gruppo N In addition to the twelve exhibitions of in Padua with some of his contempo- the Gruppo N, Biasi has been given raries. Since that time his art has devel- over one hundred solo exhibitions in oped constantly within the field of per- museums such as the Palazzo Ducale ceptual investigation, both lyrical and in Urbino, Wigner Institute of Erice, Mu- scientific, through several series: from seum of the Cathedral of Barcelona, the the early Trame to the Torsioni, from the National Museum of Villa Pisani, Strà, Light Prisms to the Ottico-dinamici. and the National Gallery in Prague. In 1988 a retrospective of his work Biasi has also participated in more than was presented at the Museo Civico five hundred group exhibitions, includ- agli Eremitani in Padua. In 2000 Bi- ing ITALIAN ZERO & avantgarde ‘60s asi drew together and surveyed all his at the MAAM Museum in Moscow, the previous research and created the As- 32nd and 42nd Venice Biennales, the semblaggi, in particular diptychs and XI Sao Paulo Biennale, the X, XI and XIV triptychs which were predominantly Rome Quadrennial and various print Bi- monochromatic, with striking three- ennials, receiving several awards.

24 Dinamica Rettangolare, 1998, mixed media on board, 180x120 cm., 70,8 x 47,2 in. 25 26 Blue Rain, 2000, mixed media on board, 122 x 172 cm., 48,3 x 67,7 in. 27 28 Instabile, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 62 cm., 23,6 x 24,4 in. Dinamica Quadrata, 2008, mixed media on board, 60 x 60 cm., 23,6 x 23,6 in. 29 Enrique Careaga (Asuncion, Paraguay, 1944-2014)

He studied architecture at the Nation- from the French government to con- al University of Asuncion and in the duct studies for integration of art and School of Fine Arts’ Moscardó Lucinda, architecture at the workshop of Victor “Asuncion. After his first exhibition in Vasarely between 1966 and 1967. He “Siege” in 1963, joined the group “Los lived and worked in France, in the city of Novísimos” in 1964. He was co-founder Paris from 1966 to 1978. He was part, of the Museum of Modern Art in Asun- in that time, moving the optical and ki- cion in 1965 and received a scholarship netic of the School of Paris.

30 Parallelepipede Spatial, 1975, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm., 39,4 x 39,4 in. 31 Participated in the Sao Paulo Biennale, in, “in Lilian Heidenberg Galery of New between 1965 and 1969, the X edition of York; in 1980, “Panorama Benson and the famous artistic encounter was iden- Hedges” at the Museum of Fine Arts in tified as one of the ten most creative pro- Buenos Aires in 1982, at the Museum of visores among young people competing Contemporary Art in Santiago de Chile; at this international event, the Biennale in 1992 “De Soto Torres Garcia to” at in Paris in 1969; in Biennial in Medel- the Museum of Art of the Americas in lin, Colombia in 1970 and 1981; in the Washington DC; in 2002, “Exposición Triennial of Engraving Latinoamericana, Binacional de Arte Paraguayo–Ameri- Buenos Aires (1979). Among the major cano”, Embajada de los Estados Unidos group exhibitions of which became part, + Carmelitas Center, Asunción; in 2007, appear in 1974: “Agam, Careaga, Riv- IX Bienal de Cuenca, Cuenca – Ecua- ers, Riley, Le Parc, Vasarely, Soto” at the dor. Works of Enrique Careaga have Museum of Stanford in the United States been part of more than 50 international of America in 1976; “Image Movement solo exhibitions since 1966.

32 Transformacion Espacio-Temporal OVN 5, 2007-2009, acriylic on canvas, 80 x 60 cm., 31,5 x 23,6 in. 33 Sara Campesan (Venice-Mestre 1924)

Sara Campesan was born in Venice- Liliana Cossovel, an exhibition space Mestre on 27 December 1924. She called ‘Galleria 3950’, which was run graduated in decoration from the Acad- exclusively by women. In 1965 she was emy of Fine Arts in Venice with Bruno a founding member of the group “Di- Saetti in 1948, having studied under alettica delle tendenze” which brought Afro Basaldella, Gastone Breddo and together young Venetian artists who her uncle, Alberto Viani. She began wanted to promote their work through her artistic career in 1950 and her first travelling exhibitions in a number of Ital- works displayed an energetic style, im- ian towns and cities; the venture was mediately showing her intention to move supported by art critics Domenico Cara away from figurative art. and Toni Toniato. Sara had met Bruno After ten years’ experience exhibiting in Munari in Milan in 1962 and their rela- every group exhibition organised by the tionship was rich and prolific. Wanting Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Ven- to learn and experience new things, she ice, in 1959 she decided to set up in moved to Rome, living there from 1969 the city, together with Bruna Gasparini, to 1973. This experience, coming at the Luigina De Grandis, Gina Roma and time of the later expressions of kinetic

34 Immagine Circolare, 1965, oil on canvas, board and perspex, 70 x 110 cm., 27,5 x 43,3 in. 35 art, signalled a shift to the modular com- in Venice in 1981, she was awarded the positions of the following decade, where silver medal from the Italian President the rational arrangement of the mod- of the Republic for her “Service to Edu- ules determined undulating or rotating cation, Culture and Art”. She has been movements. In 1978 she founded the an active exhibitor since the beginning group “Verifica 8+1” in Mestre; for thirty of her career. In 2010 she featured in a years they organised exhibitions at its solo exhibition curated by Elsa Dezuan- premises, also running a documentation ni and Giovanni Granzotto, Arte scienza and information centre, and it became a progetto colore at the Museo Civico di meeting place for artists from all walks Santa Caterina in Treviso. In 2010 she of life seeking new forms of expression. also published the book Come un dia- Invited to sit on the Cultural Commis- rio. Io ho provato where she told the sto- sion of the Opera Bevilacqua La Masa ry of her life in a light, flowing narrative.

36 Mobil Quadrato, 1968, board, acrylic and perspex, 70 x 70 cm., 27,5 x 27,5 in. 37 Britain, and the 1970 Venice Biennale. gion who were exploring concrete and He participated in the exhibition Grands structural art. In the 1980s and 1990s et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui - Art cinetique he took part in several Venice Biennales Peinture-Sculpture at the Grand Palais and was included in the 2002 exhibition of Paris in 1972, and two years later in Themes and Variations: Postwar Art from the Internationale Kunstmesse-Art5, Ba- the Guggenheim Collections at the Peggy sel. In 1978 he joined the group Verifica Guggenheim Collection. The artist cur- 8+1, comprising artists of the Veneto re- rently lives in Venice.

Franco Costalonga (Venice, 1933)

He debuted as a printmaker at the Fifty- presided over by Bruno Munari and linked first Collettiva of the Fondazione Bevilac- to Brescia’s Centro Operativo Sincron. qua La Masa, Venice, and was awarded Costalonga was thus able to thoroughly a prize. Afterwards he devoted himself to develop his interest in kinetic and visual painting and produced a series of works effects. In 1969 Peggy Guggenheim ac- which reflected his interest in color the- quired for her collection Costalonga’s ory. During the second half of the 1960s, work Sphere, made of Perspex and chro- he joined the Dialettica delle Tendenze mium metal. Costalonga has been the re- group, which had been founded in 1965 cipient of many awards and honors for his by Domenico Cara, and started employing work in the fields of furnishings and de- different materials in the attempt to create sign and has taken part in many national new surfaces that could generate three- and international art shows, including the dimensional forms. His research brought 1966 Quadriennale of Rome, the itiner- him to the Sette-Veneto group, which was ant exhibition of The Arts Council of Great Oggetto Cromocinetico ruotante, 1970, mixed media on board with electromotor, Oggetto Cromocinetico, 1970, Mixed media in plastic box, 38 65 x 65 cm., 25,5 x 25,5 in. 50 x 50 cm., 19,6 x 19,6 in. 39 40 Oggetto quadro ruotante, 2004, mixed media on board with electromotor, 75 x 75 cm., 29,5 x 29,5 in. Riflex, 1990, mixed media on board with electromotor and light bulb, 75 x 75 cm., 29,5 x 29,5 in. 41 Nadia Costantini (Mirano, 1944)

She studied Decorative Painting at the in Venice and and the Istituto d’Arte in Istituto d’Arte in Venice under the guid- Padova. In 1969 and 1981, she exhib- ance of Alessandro Pomaro, and at the ited at the Bevilacqua la Masa Gallery Accademia di Belli Arti in Venice under and in 1978, was among the founding Bruno Saetti and Carmelo Zotti. In the members of the group “Verifica8+1” in 1960s, her work was affected by infor- Mestre (Venice), showing with the group mal abstract training, but in the follow- in Turin, Brescia, Bergamo, Florence, ing decade Costantini gradually left this Rome and Bologna. Her exhibitions in- and took a more rationalist direction, ex- clude: 2003 -”Presenze”, Verifica8+1 pressing optical dynamism through geo- (Venice-Mestre); 2008 - “Astralia” per- metric elements. Thus were born three- formances, Pardes Workshop for Con- dimensional works such as “Le Torsioni”, temporary Research (Mirano-Venice), “Flussi di Superficie” and “I Fluttuanti”, “Fluttuanti e Scansioni di Superficie”, a conseguent derivation of painting. the Mogliano Room, Brolo Center for Costantini has taught visual education, Art and Culture (Mogliano Veneto- and since 1968 has focused on teaching Venice); 2009 - “l’Anima del Suono”, pictorial disciplines at the Istituto d’Arte Pardes Workshop for Contemporary Re-

42 Modulazione di Superficie, 1981, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm., 31,5 x 31,5 in. 43 search (Mirano-Venice); 2010 - “Arte limite (Mestre-Venice), “Nadia Costanti- Scienza Progetto Colore” (with Franco ni: Arte Programmata”, curated by Duilio Costalonga), Museo di Santa Caterina Dal Fabbro with text by Giovanni Gran- (Treviso); 2011 - “Arte Indifesa/In Difesa zotto and Alberto Pasini in collaboration dell’Arte”, artists at Forte Mezzocapo Ze- with Studio GR, Sacile (PN), Municipal larino; 2012 - “L. Magli Ospite di...”, Il- Gallery (Cappella Maggiore-Treviso).

44 Torsioni, 2003-2014, stainless steel, 28 x 30 x 17 cm., 11 x 12 x 6,7 in. Torsioni, 2015, stainless steel, 23 x 28 x 38 cm., 9 x 15 x 15 in. 45 Carlos Cruz-Diez (1923, Caracas, Venezuela)

From 1940 until 1945, he studied at the Venezuela, Cruz-Diez opened the Studio Academy of Fine Arts in Caracas. Fol- for Visual Art, where he investigated the lowing this, his works primarily display a interaction of color and kinetic art. Carlos realistic style of painting. Also during this Cruz-Diez worked as acting director and time, Cruz-Diez worked as a graphic art- professor of painting at the Academy of ist for various companies, later holding Fine Arts of Caracas and as professor the position of art director for the adver- for typology and graphic design for the tising agency McCann-Erickson in Cara- School of Journalism at the university cas. This is when he became interested in Caracas. In 1960, Cruz-Diez went to in the effective uses of color. From 1953 Paris again, where he worked as advi- to 1955, Cruz-Diez was an illustrator for sor of the cultural center of Noroit in Ar- the “El National” newspaper, while also ras from 1965 and as lecturer for kinetic teaching art history at the academy of techniques at the Ecole Superieure des fine arts in Caracas. In 1955, he went Beaux Arts in Paris from 1972. He was for two years to Barcelona, also travel- appointed professor and director of the ing to Paris several times and immersing art department of IDEA - Institut Interna- himself in the theories of the Bauhaus tional d’Etudes Avancées in Caracas in school of architecture. He also studied 1986. Cruz-Diez is considered one of the scientific theories of color as well as geo- most important artists of Venezuela and metric abstractions. After returning to has been honored with many awards. 46 Physiocromie 1301, 1996, mixed media on board, 50 x 65 cm., 19,6 x 25,6 in. 47 48 49 Hugo Demarco (Buenos Aires, 1932 - Paris, 1995)

He taught painting and design in Bue- paintings and reliefs, took place at the nos Aires until 1957, and then trav- Galerie Denise René (Paris, 1961). eled to Paris for the first time in 1959. Shortly after this show, Demarco be- There he made his first kinetic paint- gan a series of assemblages in wooden ings, in which the optical vibration boxes, in which hidden motors activat- was accomplished by superimposing ed mirrors, lights or geometric forms, colors. From these early beginnings, modifiying their position or their rela- his work centered on the study of light tionship with the background giving and movement, as well as the meta- rise to phenomena of optical instabil- morphosis of image and color. His first ity. Among these works, developed in individual exhibition, which included greate number during the seventies,

50 Couleur, 1969, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120 cm., 47,2 x 47,2 in. 51 belong Réflexion changeante, Méta- and Lumière et mouvement (1967). morphose, Relief-transformable, Vibra- Demarco’s painting developed in the tions, and Arabesques. The reflection 70s with the animation of two-dimen- of light, one of the resources Demarco sional surfaces becoming the main ob- used the most, was the major element ject of his research. The progressions in other assemblies without motors, but of the form-color union, developed rather animated by prisms. In 1963, generally from color degradation and Demarco settled down definitively in chromatic contrasts, created very active Paris with a grant from the French structures, in spite of the simplicity of government. By then, he had ties with their patterns. Form, color, texture and the Nouvelle Tendance movement, fre- rhythm were combined to produce vir- quently participating in their collective tual volumes and movements, as well as exhibitions and producing two docu- great tension between the real and the mentary films,Le mouvement (1966) unreal.

52 Rotations Couleurs, 1993, mixed media in a wood box with black light bulb and electromotor, 30 x 102 x 17 cm., 11,8 x 40 x 6,9 in. Coluleur, 1981, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm., 23,6 x 23,6 in. 53 Ennio Finzi (Venice, 1931)

After attending courses for a brief period of Finzi’s work became calm and ex- at the Institute of Art in Venice, he be- pressed a more reflective dimension. came attracted to the cubist structural It was the path of superseding painting disarrangement, which allowed him to itself and moving closer to gestalt theo- transcend the representation of given ries on the phenomenology of percep- reality. After the 1948 Biennale, the tion. Until 1978 the principles of opti- Historic Archives of the Contemporary cal art informed his research on optical Arts in Venice reopened, offering Finzi effects, due to the phenomenon of the the chance to dedicate himself to the retinal conservation of images. After a study of masters of avant-garde move- short crisis, painting became dominant ments in history. The discovery of do- again, with colour and non-colour, light decaphonic music led Finzi to seize the and shade, successively alternating and principle of “dissonance”. The “colour- competing on the surface of the work. sound” relationship, a colour that Finzi Black was used as the light of the dark, loved to “listen to” more than “to see” of emptiness, of silence, and led him to in its most intimate resonance, allowed probe the most secret resonance of non- him to express himself freely under dif- existence in the invisibility itself, In the ferent rules. At the end of the 1950s, continuing dialectics that distinguishes the turbulence and expressive urgency the principle of his research. This inces-

54 Scale transcromatiche, 1978, acrylic on canvas, 65 x 65 cm., 25,5 x 25,5 in. 55 sant questioning of working style makes and catharsis. In more recent years he him foreign to any preconceived stylistic retakes connotations that are rooted in form and gives him the professional la- painting and colour, but these connota- bel of “non-style”: through the experi- tions are no longer inhibited by ideologi- ence of experience, Finzi continually fol- cally closed regimes; the artist retakes lows the dream of surprise in painting, with an abandon that is completely open with a stress on constant regeneration and available to the totality of feeling.

56 Scale transcromatiche, 1978, acrylic on canvas, 65 x 65 cm., 25,5 x 25,5 in. 57 Julio Le Parc (Mendoza, 1928)

During the 1960s, Julio LE PARC was plication, and varying levels of vision. at the origin of numerous aesthetic These elements have become of crucial practices that are of great importance importance for several contemporary today. In 1960 he was co-founder with artists. Le Parc’s work, both with GRAV Morellet, Sobrino, Yvaral and others of and individually, reflects an interest in the GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d’Art the viewer’s perceptual encounter, for Visual) in Paris. The works from 1959 which GRAV staged participatory situa- to 1971 rely on dematerialization, per- tions in public spaces throughout Paris. ceptive haze, formal reduction, artificial In 1972, he famously turned down a ret- lights, environments, the audience’s im- rospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne

58 Ondes 149, 1974, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 81 cm., 25 x 31,5 in. 59 de la Ville de Paris based on a coin toss, shown in 2011 at the MOCA in Los An- subjecting his relationship to the institu- geles and at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, tions of art to chance. Le Parc’s work has reveal a language that is at once mini- been included in numerous significant malist and complex and in opposition historical exhibitions, including the 1966 with classical abstract compositions. Venice Biennale, where he received the The perpetual movement in space and Grand Prix for painting. He is the sub- time, which lies at the heart LE PARC’s ject of a 2013 retrospective at the Pal- work cannot be captured by photogra- ais de Tokyo. Other works by LE PARC, phy, and can only be grasped in vivo.

60 Alchimie, 1990, acrylic on canvas, 130 x 97 cm., 51,2 x 38 in. 61 François Morellet (Cholet, 1926)

His initial research led him to mostly two-tone the group in 1968 he continued his research on surfaces and, in 1956, to the first superimposed the aleatory nature of perception, the final ob- patterns, painted or metallic, determining retinal jective of the research remaining the kinetic-per- effects of alteration. In 1960, in Paris, he was a ceptive-relationship between retina and screen founding-member of GRAV and his interest cen- and, starting from this experimental basis, space tered on kinetic perception, with the purpose of as the relationship between object and subject. determining vibrant chromatic surfaces and new Morellet’s work has been included in numerous graduations of color depending on the intensity international exhibitions, among them, in 1968, and quality of the rhythms of perception. In 1963 “Dokumenta 4” at Kassel and the XIV Triennial in he became interested in the relationship between Milan. He has held exhibitions at the Palais Des perception and environment, creating spaces Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Musee des Beaux which involved the viewer by means of luminous Arts at Nantes and the Musee d’Art Moderne de projections on screens which could be modi- la Ville de Paris. His works were included in the fied by the viewer, as well as continuous images, “Paris-Paris” exhibition at the Center Pompidou superimpositions of emitted luminous rhythms, in Paris in 1981, in the “L’ultima avanguardia” undulatory movements, and complex visual itin- exhibition at the Palazzo Reale, Milan, in 1983, eraries. With GRAV, he took part in numerous ex- and, in 1984, in a traveling exhibition visiting the hibitions, notably important being “The Respon- Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Brook- sive Eye” exhibition at the Museum of Modern lyn Museum in New York, and the Center for the Art in New York in 1965. After the dissolution of Fine Arts in Miami. 62 3 trames strip-teasing (0°-30°-60°) 4 fois noir et blanc, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm., 39,3 x 39,3 in. 63 Bruno Munari (Milan, 1907 – 1998)

He spent his childhood and teenage Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in the late years in Badia Polesine. In 1925 he re- 1920s. During this period, Munari con- turned to Milan where he started to work tributed collages to Italian magazines, with his uncle who was an engineer. some of them highly propagandist, and During a trip to Paris, in 1933, he met created sculptural works which would Louis Aragon and André Breton. From unfold in the coming decades including 1938 to September 1943 he worked as his useless machines, and his abstract- a press graphic designer for Mondadori, geometrical works. In 1948, Munari, and as art director of Tempo Magazine Gillo Dorfles, Gianni Monnet and Ata- and Grazia, two magazines owned by nasio Soldati, founded Movimento Arte Mondadori. At the same time he began Concreta (MAC), the Italian movement designing books for children, originally for concrete art. During the 1940s and created for his son Alberto. 1950s, Munari produced many objects Bruno Munari joined the ‘Second’ Ital- for the Italian design industry. In his lat- ian Futurist movement in Italy led by er life, Munari, worried by the incorrect

64 Negativo Positivo, collage and acylic on cardboard, 50 x 50 cm., 19,6 x 19,6 in. 65 perception of his artistic work, which is philosophy throughout his artistic life. still confused with the other genres of Munari was also a significant contribu- his activity (didactics, design, graphics), tor in the field of children’s books and selected art historian Miroslava Hajek toys, later in his life, though he had been as curator of a selection of his most im- producing books for children since the portant works in 1969. This collection, 1930s. He used textured, tactile sur- structured chronologically, shows his faces and cut-outs to create books that continuous creativity, thematic coher- teach about touch, movement, and co- ence and the evolution of his aesthetic lour through kinesthetic learning.

66 Polarishop, 1970, mixed media in steel box with light bulbs, 50 x 50 cm., 19,6 x 19,6 in. 67 Ben Ormenese (Prata di Pordenone 1930 - Sacile, 2013)

He left the faculty of architecture in the 1960s 1970i, within only a few years, was able to show and moved to Milan to become an artist. Many his work in various solo exhibitions in Italy and of Ormenese’s artworks are recognizable by the Germany, and in other exhibitions for example geometrical and three-dimensional aspects he at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, as well incorporates into them. In addition, light and as at modern art shows in Switzerland and Ger- dynamics, as well as visual perception repre- many. Then because of a personal crisis at the sent main themes in the design of his works end of the 1970ies Ormenese one night burned of art. He often paints tessellated patterns, and many of his works of art. During the 1980ies likes using the colors black and white in many and 1990ies he formed wooden architecturally of his minimalistic artworks, also in combina- inspired structures, initially abstract, but later tion with only a few other colors. Ben Ormen- his works evolved more into spacial sculptures. ese later started including the topic of visual It is Ben Ormenese’s acquaintance with the art perception in his artwork, placing for example critic Giovanni Granzotto that seems to have lamellae, formed with cardboard, directly into brought about more exhibitions by the kinetic the surface or into a wooden artwork, thereby artist. Common to all of these works of art is the creating three-dimensional objets d’art. minimalistic use of colors, usually black and Through the gallery owner Silvano Falchi in Mi- white, with one or two other colors. Visual per- lan, Ben Ormenese, from the beginning of the ception is the prevailing topic.

68 Untitled, 2000, mixed media on board, 90 x 90 cm., 35,4 x 35,4 in. 69 Sandi Renko (Trieste, 1949)

He studied at the Istituto d’Arte Nordio time, simultaneously making his mark among artists who marked the artistic in the field of design and industrial plan- avante-garde of Trieste, such as Miela ning. Reina, Enzo Cogno and Ugo Cora’. In Renko’s modus operandi is usually to the 1970s, Renko moved to Padova, set up a work surface of corrugated where he became caught up in the cul- cardboard that has been treated with tural ferment of the artistic movement of acrylic colors, using solid geometric the avante-garde, and where he came structures with seemingly elementary into contact with Gruppo N, dedicating patterns based on a cube motif. The his research especially to programmed modular development of space is treat- art and optical art. The artist’s work is ed with methodological rigor, offering therefore the result of a journey that the viewer variable sequences that are started at the end of the 1960s in the reduced to essential visual elements, field of programmed and optical art. where vertical lines, legible from sev- Renko participated in group exhibitions, eral angles, bring life to the images. The “happenings” and other events of the works of Sandi Renko use simple lines

70 Kubik78, 1978, mixed tecnique on cardboard, 48 x 48 cm., 18,8 x 18,8 in. 71 that vary in length and thickness, creat- patterns. Adhering to the neo-avante- ing volumetric effects that take on kin- garde spirit that developed in Italy in esthetic characteristics when observed the 1960s, Sandi Renko elaborates his from different viewpoints. As happens in personal visual and architectural lexi- nature, the subjects become modulat- con, experimenting with perceptive and ed phenomena of geometric structures multisensory variables, and diversifying that change according to elementary light effects.

72 KROG 715, 2015, mixed tecnique on carboard, 95 x 95 cm., 37,4 x 37,4 in. 73 Claudio Rotta Loria (Turin, 1949)

After his first figurative experiences luminosa (1970); Interventi d’ambiente in 1968, he oriented his work toward (1971) elementary structures arranged contemporary studies on reducing the in natural or constructed space; and language of painting to its primary, el- Oggetti cinetici (1971) and Spazializza- emental and concrete features. His ex- zioni di forme geometriche (1971). perimentation is concentrated on two In this period he was a member of the dialectical focal points: programmed “Operativo Ti.zero” in Turin and was the and kinetic visual structurality and the co-founder of the “Centro sperimentale poetic value of geometry, aroused by di ricerca estetica” (1969-1976). the slightest perceptual and sensorial During the 1980s, Rotta Loria explored, stimulation. It was in this way that he the sensitive, emotional aspects of accomplished Rotazioni del quadrato painting, as an introspective search ori- (1969); Strutture reticolari complesse ented toward spiritual and symbolic di- a pluripercezione (1970) and Cromo- mensions. plastici (1970); Superfici a interferenza In the new millennium, the artist has let

74 Superficie a interferenza luminosa 1x15 abcd, 1971-1993, mixed media on board, 60 x 60 cm., 23,2 x 23,2 in. 75 loose all his expressive potential in a to- tal, germinative, exhilarating spatiality. The work has gradually taken on new materials: the need to tackle the many interferences and imbalances of today’s world makes it more open to sensorial contamination and to combining differ- ent materials. “Archipainting” is the ex- pression used to designate the work of Rotta Loria, seen as a three-dimensional dynamic construction that brings togeth- er design, aerial photography, painting, sculpture, colour, technological parts, everyday objects and fragments of sym- bolic meaning. The whole is balanced between essentiality and redundancy and always permeated by a strong in- ternal tension that gives the work a new constitutional identity, while maintaining coherence and overall recognisability of the work.

76 Superfici a interferenza luminosa 3 Nx16 abcd, 1971, mixed media on board, 28 x 69 cm., 11 x 27 in. 77 Nicolas Schöffer (Kalocsa 1912 —Paris 1992)

His career touched on painting, kinetic netic theories in that they suggested to sculpture, architecture, urbanism, film, him artistic processes in terms of the or- TV, and music. Indeed he collaborated ganization of the system manifesting it on music with Pierre Henry. All of the (e.g., the circular causality of feedback- artistic actions of Schöffer were done in loops). For Schöffer, this enabled cyber- the pursuit of a dynamism in art. This in- netics to elucidate complex artistic rela- terest in artistic dynamism was originally tionships from within the work itself. His initiated by the Cubo-Futurists and then CYSP 1 (1956) is considered the first intensified and solidified by the Russian cybernetic sculpture in art history in that Constructivism artists, such as Naum it made use of electronic computations Gabo, Anton Pevsner, Moholy-Nagy as developed by the Philips Company. and Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack. All these The sculpture is set on a base mount- artists were concerned with opening ed on four rollers, which contains the up the static three-dimensional sculp- mechanism and the electronic brain. tural form to a fourth dimension of time The plates are operated by small motors and motion. And this was the intention located under their axis. Photo-electric of Schöffer as well. Schöffer however, cells and a microphone built into the coming well after, benefited from cyber- sculpture catch all the variations in the

78 Untitled, 1969, steinless steel, plastic, motor, 20 x 25 cm., 8 x 10 in. 79 fields of color, light intensity and sound the self-communication within an ob- intensity. Consequently his kinetic sculp- server’s psyche and between the psyche tural compositions were able to parallel and the surrounding environment. This the work of Warren McCulloch and his is the primary usefulness of cybernetics adaptation of cybernetics in formulating in studying the supposed subject/object a creative epistemology concerned with polarity in terms of artistic experience.

80 Composition Spatiale, 60's, mixed media on paper, 40 x 27 cm., 16 1/2 x 11 in. 81 Paolo Scirpa (Syracuse, Sicily, 1934)

His work has always taken the dimen- no longer exists. Over the course of the sion of an inner quest, outside any years, he also created large works high- forms of restrictive categorization. From lighting the negative aspects of consum- the 1970s, he moved from a two-dimen- erist society, as well as installations, and sional iconography to the modularity of paintings which could be described as an objective space, transformed by light two-dimensional depictions of his Ludo- and mirrors into a polyobjective format. scopes. In the 1980s, he began working The artist evidently wishes to depict on design themes, inserting his bottom- not so much real light, as “ideal” light, less wells into various episodes of archi- namely the idea of infinity, and so he tecture and other prestigious locations. therefore uses the means available to For many years, he exhibited at the Salon him, fluorescent tubes and mirrors. This Grands et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui in Paris, led to the invention of his Ludoscopes, at the 9th and 13th Quadriennial Exhibi- three-dimensional works that present tions in Rome, at Palazzo dei Diamanti the perception of a fictitious depth, to- (Ferrara), and more recently at ZKM wards luminous hyperspaces in which (Karlsruhe), at Neue Galerie (Graz), at the boundary between reality and illusion MART (Rovereto), at GNAM and MAC- 82 Espansione. Pozzo. 1986, neon bulbs, mirrors, wood, 50 x 50 x 50 cm., 19,6 x 19,6 x 19,6 in. 83 RO (Rome). His works are present in seum Ritter (Waldenbuch), Museo Civ- many museums and collections such as ico d’Arte Contemporanea (Gibellina), Museum of the Twentieth Century (Mi- Museum (Bagheria), Fabbriche Chiar- lan), Civiche Raccolte Stampe Achille amontane (Agrigento), VAF-Stiftung Bertarelli (Castello Sforzesco, Milan), (MART Trento/Rovereto). Scirpa has MAPP (Milan), MAGA (Gallarate), Mu- taught at the Brera Fine Arts Academy.

84 Ludoscopio n. 151 - cubo multispaziale, 2008, neon bulbs, glass, mirrors, 40 x 40 x 40 cm., 15,7 x 15,7 x 15,7 in. 85 Rino Sernaglia (Montebelluna, 1936)

He was born in Montebelluna in 1936, the late 1960s and the “positivo-nega- studying painting and mosaics at the tivo” of the 1970s, that it extends until Istituto d’Arte in Venice. In 1959 he today. Sernaglia’s investigation brought moved to Milan where he worked as a him to define three-dimensional me- designer for a broad variety of cultural chanical explorations of white light, or- publications, and for Italian television. In ganized within a passive space and bor- 1965 Sernaglia began a series of study dered on its edges by a virtual cornice, trips abroad, allowing him to confront but he also allowed himself stronger the latest artistic trends and definitively chromatic and kinetic expressions. abandon a naturalistic, evocative artistic The artist’s esthetic is rigorously rational inspiration in favor of geometric abstrac- and is articulated through the form of tionism. the square polygon and kinetic move- Sernaglia became such a pioneer of this ment, suggesting the invention of mul- research, conceiving brilliant creative tiple forms that are rhythmic and dy- cycles such as “Cicli di Purificazione” in namic.

86 Luce con Ombra, 1978, acrylic on cardboard, 50 x 50 cm., 19,6 x 19,6 in. 87 In 1990 Sernaglia joined the interna- naglia can claim attainment to a large tional movement “Arte Madi” and the number of awards and honors, and his cultural association Arte Struktura, par- work is shown in numerous national and ticipating in numerous exhibitions and international public spaces. initiatives on these subjects. Today Ser- Lives and works in Milan.

88 Luce-Ombra, 1984, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 70 cm., 27,5 x 27,5 in. 89 Francisco Sobrino (Guadalajara, 1932 - Paris, 2014)

From 1946 to 1949 he studied at the dimensional constructions, combin- Escuela de Arte y Oficios, Madrid, be- ing modular elements of transparent fore moving to Argentina, where he at- monochrome and polychrome plexiglas tended in the National Fine Arts School, with regular structures that, when over- Buenos Aires, until 1957. In 1959 he lapped, seemed to change if viewed moved to Paris and began to explore from different angles. In 1964 he ex- visual art, pursuing studies concerning hibited at the Documenta, Kassel, and the structure and dynamics of form, as the following year he took part in the well as color and perception. In 1960, exhibition The Responsive Eye, held at along with Julio Le Parc, François Mo- The Museum of Modern Art, New York. rellet and others, he formed the Groupe During this period he built a large stain- de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV), ac- less steel structure in Sarcelles, France, tive in Paris until 1968. From 1961, forming the first of his numerous urban Sobrino focused his research on three- interventions. He also explored the ef-

90 Torsione, 1975-81, plexiglass, 68 x 18 x 17 cm., 27 x 7 x 6 in. 91 fects of light, focusing on reflections, missioned by Grenoble, Madrid and absorption qualities, transparency, and Paris to produce sculptures for installa- optical illusions created by shadows. In tion in public places. In 1976 Sobrino the second half of the 1960s he made studied how to incorporate solar power kinetic objects that could be manipulat- into his work, creating Scultura autoen- ed by the viewer. Despite the disbanding ergetica in 1981. Sobrino’s work is part of the GRAV group in 1968, he contin- of major museum collections such as ued his research into three-dimensional the Tate Gallery, London, and the Mu- constructions. From 1971 he was com- seum of Fine Arts, Boston.

92 Untitled, 2000, acylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm., 39,3 x 39,3 in. 93 Joel Stein (Saint-Martin Boulogne 1926 - 2012)

He entered the École des Beaux-Art rellet, Francisco Sobrino (a Spaniard in Paris in 1946 and frequented the trained in Argentina) and Jean-Pierre studio of Fernand Léger. During the Yvaral, Victor Vasarely’s son. They pro- mid-1940s he studied engraving in duced a series of work to be displayed the workshop of George Visat, pro- outside the traditional gallery circuit, ducing a series of etchings on zinc. allowing the public closer proximity to In 1956 Stein planned his first geomet- the art and challenging each viewer’s rical paintings according to mathemati- perceptions of it. In different kinetic cal foundations. He created a series of works of art, such as kaleidoscopes, mazes in two dimensions, which later compositions with mirrors and mobile developed into manipulable reliefs in structures, Stein studied the chromatic 1959. In 1960 he was a founding mem- polarization of light and how it stimu- ber of the Groupe de Recherche d’Art lated the viewer. Inspired by the possi- Visuel (GRAV, 1960–1968) along with bilities of new technologies, he began Argentines Horacio García Rossi and working with lasers in 1968, continu- Julio Le Parc, as well as François Mo- ing his research on the effect of colors.

94 Entrelac chromatique, 1976, acrilyc on canvas, 100 x 130 cm., 39,3 x 51,1 in. 95 From 1969 to 1992 he taught ar- versité Paris VIII in Vincennes in 1970. chitecture at the Unité Pédagogique Stein has participated in numerous solo d’Architecture, directed a theoretical and group exhibitions worldwide, and and practical workshop at the Univer- and his artworks are to be found in many sité Paris I Pantheón-Sorbonne from important Museums and art space all 1974 to 1992, and a course at the Uni- over the world.

96 Ombre du rouge, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm., 31,5 x 31,5 in. 97 Gregorio Vardanega (Possagno, 1923 - Paris, 2007)

His family relocated to Buenos Aires Salon de Amérique latine in Paris, and when he was three years old. As a young this exhibition put him in contact with man, he studied in the Academia Na- the important figures involved in Paris’s cional de Bellas Artes (1939-1946) in growing kinetic movement, including Buenos Aires, and graduated as profes- Denise René, Georges Vantongerloo, sor of drawing. In 1946, he participated Nicolas Pevsner, Sonia Delaunay, Max in the exhibitions organized by the Aso- Bill, and Constantin Brancusi. When ciación Arte Concreto-Invención, and he returned to Buenos Aires, he began two years later, he traveled with Carmelo making his earliest kinetic works, using Arden Quin to Europe. The trip was an metal bands and celluloid. important moment in the artist’s forma- At the center of many of Argentina’s tion; a year later, he showed work at the avant-garde artistic circles, Vardanega

98 Gregorio Vardanega, Untitled, 1970, plexiglass relief, 25 x 25 cm., 10 x 10 in. 99 was a founding member of the Aso- architecture and urban planning. He ciación Arte Nuevo in 1955 and, the hoped his towers and light works would following year, of Artistas No Figurativos be accompanied by music and other Argentinos (ANFA). In 1959, Vardanega modes of performative work; he consid- moved to Paris with Martha Boto, and ered many of the sculptures to be proto- began experimenting with Plexiglas types for large-scale public projects. His spheres, illuminated with moving pro- first major exhibition in Paris, Chromoci- jections of colored lights. nétisme (1964), was a two-person show He was especially drawn to the cultural with Boto at the Maison des Beaux-Arts. phenomena of machines that “think.” His work has subsequently been in- As did many kinetic artists, Vardanega cluded in numerous important surveys thought of his work as in dialogue with of kinetic art.

100 Untitled, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm., 31,5 x 31,5 in. 101 Victor Vasarely (Pecs, 1906 - Paris, 1997)

Art historians credit Vasarely with paint- Vasarely was once again on the “right ing some of the earliest examples of Op track,” embracing the style that was Art. Vasarely’s interests leaned toward to become more definitively his. It was the sciences. The artist chose Medical during this period, that the artist cre- Studies as his focus at Budapest Uni- ated Op Art works directly inspired by versity prior to his making the decision local geographical influences. Vasare- to pursue art. Indeed, Victor Vasarely ly’s 1950’s work was dominated by his works demonstrate the intertwined na- black and white kinetic paintings. The ture of the artist, intriguing us because following period of his career would be they are indeed the merging of science closely tied to the unveiling of his Al- and art − with the biological nature of phabet Plastique, a method for devel- the viewer’s mind providing the kinetic oping works which the artist patented motion within the work. Interestingly, fol- in 1959. The method includes the use lowing Vasarely’s early graphic period, predefined units of form and color, es- from 1944-1947, inspired by prominent sentially creating the equivalent of a French artists, Vasarely changed focus, programming language for somewhat painting abstract art that deviated from mechanically creating works – referred his Op Art style. Over the next years, to as “serial art.” It was in 1965, when

102 Folklore, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 60 cm., 27,5 x 24,5 in. 103 Victor Vasarely was included in the Mu- Two Vasarely museums have been es- seum of Modern Art’s exhibition, The tablished in Victor Vasarely’s homeland Responsive Eye, that the artist’s popu- of Hungary. One opened in 1976 in the larity skyrocketed. This is the time when artist’s birthplace of Pécs and the other Vasarely became widely considered a opened in 1987 in Zichy Palace, Buda- seminal figure in the Op Art movement. pest.

104 Oval, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 85 cm., 28,2 x 33,5 in. 105 Yvaral (Paris, 1934-2002)

Jean-Pierre Vasarely, known as Yvaral, Gallery, New York, 1966. From c.1968 born in Paris. Studied graphic art and made many paintings and screenprints publicity at the Ecole des Arts Appliqués with vigorous colour interactions and in Paris. First experimented with geo- geometrical compositions suggesting metrical abstract art in 1954 and made movement, projection, recession, etc. his first works with movement 1955. Co- His works include a number of multiples founder with Le Parc, Morellet, Sobrino By the end of the 1960s he was making and others of the Groupe de Recherche many paintings and screenprints with d’Art Visuel 1960. vigorous colour interactions and geo- Attempted to create a visual language metrical compositions. based on simple codifiable and pro- His work focussed on producing opti- grammed elements and also (in his cal acceleration effects that suggested reliefs) to use moiré effects, optical ac- movement, projection and recession. celeration, etc. to introduce notions of He aimed to create a visual language space and time usually through the based on simple codifiable and pro- displacement of the spectator. First grammed elements. one-man exhibition at the Howard Wise Through his search for a concise geo-

106 Carbone Gris Jaune, 1971, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm., 23,6 x 23,6 in. 107 metric digital vocabulary, he addressed hind a large collection of his digitized, our notions of space and time through kinetic paintings which pay homage to the displacement of the spectator. his search for a language of geometric Yvaral died in Paris in 2002 leaving be- simplicity.

108 Structure Cubique JM4. 1976, acylic on canvas, 65 x 65 cm., 25,6 x 25,6 in. 109 Different perceptual developments Bernard Aubertin (Fontenay-aux-Roses, 1934-2015)

Painter, media and object artist Bernard Au- power dominated the artist’s new works. bertin is regarded one of the most important As of 1958 Bernard Aubertin became in- representatives of the artist group “Zéro”. creasingly occupied with the effects of Bernard Aubertin was born in the French town monochrome paintings with either lively-pas- of Fontenay-aux-Roses in 1934. After the end tose or thoroughly smoothed surfaces. As of of the war he began to study at the Paris Ecole 1960 Bernard Aubertin began to create his des Metiers d’Art and the Ecole de Forma- nail pictures which would become a leitmotif tion des Professeurs de Dessin (1950-1953). within his oeuvre. Soon the artist discovered Bernard Aubertin’s early paintings continued fire as a means of artistic expression. In 1961 avant-garde art from the days before the war: Bernard Aubertin used the element, which He predominantly made landscapes, por- to him was the source of all life, in kinetic ob- traits and still lives in a Cubist/Futurist style. jects. Later he made work groups of scorched In 1957 the artistic development of Bernard books (“Livres Brûlés”, as of 1962) or the red Aubertin’s saw its breakthrough: The young smoking metal “Cages rouges de Fumée”. painter met Yves Klein, whose oeuvre would Scorch marks, matches or firework rockets have fundamental influence on him. From can be found in his works from the 1960s. that point on Bernard Aubertin turned away Works by Bernard Aubertin have been part from figuration and instead sought to dis- of international exhibitions since the 1960s, play effects of pure color, light, motion and among them shows in Paris (1972), Florence abstract structures. A primal and mystical (1974), Caracas (1989) or Milan (1990). 112 Untitled, 1969, oil and nails on board, 30 x 30 cm., 11,8 x 11,8 in. 113 Agostino Bonalumi (Vimercate, 1935 - 2013)

He exhibited his first pieces, figurative work on pa- Bonalumi mainly worked in a pronounced three per, at the age of 13 in Virmercate. Agostino Bonalu- dimensional space and therefore largely aban- mi continued his artistic training autodidactically, doned the element of painting: He used elements while studying technical drawing at the “Institute of wood to break the evenness of the canvas. Tecnico Industriale”. Between 1957 and 1958 Agostino Bonalumi created works, which are Bonalumi frequented Enrico Baj’s studio in Milan, strongly determined by geometrical shapes. 20 where he met Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani. years later his attempt at breaking up these stiff They had their first exhibition together in 1958. shapesled him to a freedom of movement of the A little later, Agostino Bonalumi and the two included objects. Monochrome works appeared, other artists founded the “Azimuth” journal and whose ridges and troughs are marked by wires gallery. At that time, Bonalumi, who had initially attached on the back. The compact structures of been close to Lucio Fontana and Art Informel, the canvas were broken up by moving systems mainly focused on reliefs and three-dimension- of lines, which transgress the lateral limitations. al space arrangements. Agostino Bonalumi Bonalumi participated in several Biennales. Due and Manzoni join the group “ZERO”. Bonalumi to his numerous exhibitions in Germany, Italy, was one of the founding members of “Nouvelle Holland, Switzerland and the USA, Agostino Ecole Européenne”, a group which was set up Bonalumi has remained in the public eye from a year later in Lausanne. During the seventies the sixties to present day.

114 Untitled, 1978, acylic on shaped canvas, 70 x 70 cm., 27,5x27,5 in. 115 Marco Casentini (La Spezia, 1961)

Marco Casentini divides his time be- his creativity as he abandons the use of tween Los Angeles and Milan where he earthly colors and introduces new colors teaches at the Accademia di Belle Arti and new atmospheres. di Brera. Casentini was awarded the Pollock- The paintings from his first period in Mi- Krasner Foundation Grant in 2005 for lan are recognized by their typical Lom- his outstanding artistic contributions. bard coloring: sienna yellow, land color, He has had solo museum exhibitions green, the same colors that one can see at The Bakersfield Museum of Art - Ba- in the urban setting of Lombardy’s cit- kersfield, California, USA, The River- ies. In 1996 starts to travel throughout side Art Museum - Riverside, California, the United States, mainly in the West- USA, CAMeC - La Spezia Italy, Torrance ern States.The colors and above all, the Art Museum - Torrance, California, USA, light, of these States have a big effect on Museum für Konkrete Kunst - Ingolstadt,

116 Good Vibrations, 2015, acrylic on perspex, 72 x 62 cm., 28,4 x 24,5 in. 117 Germany and Mestna Galerija - Nova abstraction, often inspired by an ex- Gorica ,Slovenia and in private galleries perience tied to landscape or urban in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Di- scenes. His work leaves the viewer with ego, Chicago, Miami, Palm Desert, Sun an impression or emotion, rather than a Valley, Milano, Munchen, Frankfurt and concrete image of a scene. He uses the Paris. juxtaposition of color, light, and geom- …Marco Casentini’s paintings are el- etry to convey that which he finds in his egant, minimal studies of geometric everyday life...

118 Summerland, 2015, acrylic on perspex, 45 x 45 cm., 17,7 x 17,7 in. 119 Marcello De Angelis (Villafranca, 1977)

A graduate of the Politecnico of Milan The artist participated in the group exhi- (2003), Marcello De Angelis has partici- bition “Burned Children of America” at pated in various exhibitions and com- the Fondazione Villa Benzi di Caerano petitions. Since 2001 he has developed San Marco in 2004, and in the same year his own personal painting technique was selected at the 4th National Award called Injection Painting: harnessing for Painting and Sculpture. In 2005, De painting material within a rational order, Angelis took part in the XX World Youth it is a metaphor for mental flow and the Day (Cologne), and won First Prize in the logic of thought, creating a sort of laby- 5th Contest For Small Artwork Format rinth realized by injecting acrylic color 18x24. Additionally, he participated in directly upon the surface of the canvas the group exhibitions “Senza Trucco” at using syringe needles. In 2002, De An- the Box Art Gallery and “Incontro Scon- gelis showed at the 86th collective exhi- tro” at the PaciArte Gallery. In 2006, bition “Bevilacqua la Masa of Venice”, he inaugurated his personal exhibition and was invited to Milan for the group at the La Torre Gallery in Milan and in show “Dieci Artisti da Riconoscere”. 2007, he exhibited at the group show

120 Polluce, 2010, Injection painting on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, 31,5 x 23,6 in 121 “OUT! Emozioni in Movimento” at Chio- 31 artists for the 2008 Segrete di Bocca stri di Santa Caterina in Finalborgo and Award, and another - “Adorazione”- in November also saw the showing of was selected for the 2008 Profilo d’Arte his work “Generazione” at the Am Roten Award by Banca Profilo, and displayed Hof Gallery (Vienna). De Angelis’ work at the Museo della Permanente in Milan. “Axis Mundi” was chosen from among

122 Orizzonti, 2007, Injection painting on canvas, 80 x 120 cm., 31,5 x 47,2 in. 123 Riccardo De Marchi (Mereto di Tomba / Udine, 1964)

He started his artistic career in 1986 at gressively into steel and plexiglas sup- Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation with ports, in which the hole path becomes a personal exhibition, he developed a a trace of existence, a trace of memory. coherent expressive language, all or- Riccardo De Marchi’s work has been chestrated and based on the connec- included in numerous international ex- tion between sign, trace and presence, hibitions, among them: XLV Biennale, or absence, of the material. Moving Venice; IX International Sculpture Bien- from the first traditional paintings Ric- nale, Carrara 1998 ; MART, Rovereto, cardo De Marchi reached, on the be- “Percorsi riscoperti dell’arte italiana ginning of the ’90, the use of firm sup- nella VAF Stiftung 1947-2010”, 2011; port, mirrored or opaque, on which “La magnifica ossessione”, 2013; Peg- he works realizing hole-traces that go gy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; through the support, carving it from Palazzo Fortuny, Venice “In-Finitum” side to side, putting the artwork in di- ,2009; “TRA. Edge of becoming”, 2011; rect contact with the third dimension. “Proportio”, 2015. While among his the The emphasized physicality of his art- personal exihibitions we can mention: works, lived, gone-through and walked- “Timpani”, Turchetto/Plurima Gallery, over as pieces of existence, diluted pro- Milan (1994); “Riccardo De Marchi”,

124 Testo ritrovato, holes and reliefs on stainless steel, 138 x 200 cm., 54,3 x 78,7 in. 125 APC Galerie, Cologne (1996); “Testi per 2005); “Testi per nulla”, Riva Gallery, nulla” and “Tutti i buchi del mondo”, New York (2003); “Le parti mancanti”, Galleria d’Arte Niccoli, Parma (1999, A arte studio Invernizzi, Milano ( 2012); 2008); “Incompleto Capovolto” and “Riccardo De Marchi: Alfabeto Possi- “text”, Artcore Gallery, Toronto (2002, bile” at Casa Cavazzini, Udine (2015).

126 2 testi, 2014, holes on plexiglass, 69 x 79 x 6 cm., 31 x 27 x 2,4 in. 127 Mara Fabbro (Castello d’Aviano)

She graduated from Teachers’ Training The inspiration and motivation of her College in Sacile and then she began work comes from the world of Nature. her career path always keeping alive her She explores the relationship between passion for painting. Man and Nature that has always been She studied and worked on her own in a precarious balance and difficult, for years, experimenting a personalized now more and more complex and un- mixed medium technique that portrays breakable and therefore requires atten- her ideas of painted visual art. tion and responsible choices and global The works are made with a sandy paste involvement. that that I first spread and manipulated More recently, she met the taste and with her hands, spatulas and other in- appraisal of collectors, art dealers and struments and then colored. experts; important encounters that en- The choice of this medium is deter- couraged her to organize the first per- mined by her desire to create a “living” sonal exhibition. It took place in Venice work with a strong communicative im- at the Primo Piano Gallery from 1 to 15 pact. of May 2011.

128 Anthozoa, 2013, mixed tecnique on board, 80 x 80 cm., 31,5 x 31,5 in. 129 Since then, Mara has exhibited her work Le Poche, Geneva; En Beauregard Gal- in several national and international lo- lery, Montreux; KBL Private Bank, Lu- cations, such as: Agora Gallery, New gano; Swiss Art Space, Lausanne. York; Studio d’Arte G.R., Sacile; Galerie

130 Black Smokers, 2014, mixed tecnique on board, 70 x 70 cm., 27,5 x 27,5 in. 131 Emanuela Fiorelli (Rome, 1970)

She graduated from the Academy of her with a solo exhibition at the Biennale Fine Arts in Rome in 1993. Between of Art in Karlsruhe (Frankfurt). Among 1998 and 2001, awarded scholarships the recent exhibitions we remember that allow residences in Turkey, Poland participating in the “Experimenta”, the and the United States. In 2003 she was Farnesina Collection of the Ministry of invited to the XIV Quadrennial “Antep- Foreign Affairs, which aims to promote rima Napoli”. In 2004 she won the Pre- the works of art of the last generations. mio Accademia Nazionale di San Luca/ In 2010 she won the Premio Banca Pittura. In 2005 participated in the exhi- Aletti Artverona for the session painting/ bition “Lucio Fontana e la sua eredità”, sculpture/installation and video. where is highlighted a line of continuity In 2012 she was invited by the Italian between the work of Fontana and some Institute of Culture in Lima (Peru) to ex- of the artists of succeeding generations. hibit her work at the Galleria d’Arte visiva In 2007 she was invited by Michele Em- Centro Culturale Ccori Wasi Universidad mer to develop an intervention and an Ricardo Palma. installation at the conference “Mathe- The exhibition, titled “Emanuela Fiorelli matics and Culture”, University Ca’ Fos- and Paolo Radi, nel segno e nella luce”, cari, Venice. In 2008 the Gedok rewards offers a large number of works of the

132 Isola di ombra, 2012, mixed media on canvas, 133 x 110 x 13 cm., 51 x 43 x 5,5 in. 133 recent artistic journey of the two Italian ARIA” (Teatro Valle Occupato, Rome) artists. and “In-tensioni reciproche” presented Since 2012 the collaboration with K. di at Salerno, Milan and Venice. Rienzo and M. Cappellani gives life to In 2013 she began working with Denise experiences in performing with “Fogli in René gallery in Paris.

134 Partitura semantica, 2015, mixed media on canvas, 67 x 47 x 11 cm., 26 x 18,5 x 5 in. 135 Gabriele Grossi (Morciano, 1976)

In 2004 he graduated in law at the Uni- ist in the exhibition “Mediterraneo, a sea versity of Urbino in Italy. During this pe- that unites”. In 2008 after returning to riod, as a self-taught photographer, he Italy he went to live in New York where began his experimentation with Light, he approached figurative Photography, Time and Space and created his first creating a new series entitled “New York abstract images. and the street carillon”. In the same year In 2008 he moved to London where he he began his collaboration with Studio was selected by the Italian Cultural Insti- Gr art gallery. tute to participate as the only Italian art- In 2009 he returned to Italy where

136 Manifestazione della forma, 2004, C type print mounted on diasec, 80 x 120 cm., 31,5 x 47,2 in. 137 he began his experimentation with a physically interacted with this corpus hand-made pinhole camera. As a re- of images erasing precise details of the sult of this experimentation a new work pictures. This was the beginning of a was born entitled “I remember the new project entitled “Everyday Anyone”. sea”. In the same year he began his During these years he travelled often to collaboration with Lumas art Gallery. London, Berlin, Paris, New York where In 2009/2010 he made a tour of most he partecipated in exhibitions organized of the amusement parks of Italy creat- by the European Commission, Lumas ing a new project entitled “Luna Park” art gallery and Imago art gallery. where the pictures were then displayed In 2012 he began a new project entitled using an aluminium/plexiglass hand- “Interstellar Highways” where webcam made light box. images of highways around the world In 2010 his attention focused on some were used to compose imaginary galax- old photographs he found in an aban- ies. doned house. For the first time he The artist currently lives in Italy.

138 Home #1, 2012, C type print mounted on diasec, 30 x 40 cm., 11 x 15,2 in. 139 Otto Piene (Laasphe 1928, Berlin 2014)

After military service and war captivity Piene be- for four years. He then went to the Massachu- gan his studies at the Blocher School and at the setts Institute of Technology in Cambridge/USA Kunstakademie in Munich at the age of 20. Two where he became professor of environmental art years later he went to the Kunstakademie in Düs- and from 1974 to 1993 he was the director of the seldorf where he was enrolled until 1953. Then Centre for Advanced Visual Studies. The Muse- followed a four-year degree in philosophy at the um am Ostwall in Dortmund arranged the artists university of Cologne. Piene began studying the first retrospective exhibition as early as 1967 and element of light in art around the mid 1950s. He he was invited to present his objects once again had exhibitions from 1955 onwards, first group at the documenta ten years later. Piene became exhibitions and, in 1959, his first one-man exhi- a member of the council of the Zentrum für bition at the Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf. To- Kunst und Medien in Karlsruhe in 1990. Since gether with Heinz Mack Piene founded the group 1994 he has been Director emeritus at the CAVS/ ZERO in 1957. The group was later also joined MIT. Piene became known with his light-kinetic by Günther Uecker. Until 1961 the three artists works, particularly the light ballet, in which the published the art journal ZERO. The group organ- artist tries to find a link between nature and tech- ised numerous ZERO-exhibitions between 1961 nology. His intense study of light, movement and and 1966. They exhibited a ZERO Lichtraum, a space is also reflected in his technically rather joint work of the three artists, at the documenta different grid and fire pictures the artist has been III in 1964. In the same year Piene accepted a experimenting with since the 1960s, as well as teaching post at the University of Pennsylvania in his air and light sculptures and his sky events.

140 Hitzewelle, 2006, oil and shoot on canvas, 30 x 40 cm., 11,8 x 15,7 in. 141 Paolo Radi (Rome, 1966)

Was born in Roma on 28 March 1966. sion that glows in the composition of the Graduated from the Academy of Fine folds. Arts in Rome in 1988, made his debut The comparison with white and with in 1992 at the exhibition “Young Artists light introduces the artist to the freedom IV” at the Palace of Exhibitions in Roma. of light textures. Paolo Radi’s aesthetic practice can be The trans-scription is to look with the divided in two periods. eyes of mind toward a higher being to The first accepts works in which the reach the extreme of utterable, the lan- artist challenges the progressive disap- guages of white in which the temporal pearance of the brush, colour and the declinations of the spatial infinite them- limit drawn on the surface; the second selves immerse. is announced by the representation of Paolo Radi is an heir of the Twentieth white – staging the aura, the fugitive ap- Century tradition, dialoguing with the pearance and the evanescent impres- timelessness in art and follows the co-

142 Oltre l’arco, plastic relief, 95 x 64 x 25 cm., 37 x 25,5 x 10 in. 143 lour schemes, thelyricism in every co- from a process of reduction or removal, lour, settling the knowledge, in order to it is the result of a gradual knowledge, access a new experience. lived to access a beyond writing, follow- White monochrome does not originate ing an invisible thread of light.

144 Disco solare, 2011, plastic relief, 117 x 106 x 25 cm., 46 x 41,7 x 10 in. 145 Turi Simeti (Alcamo, 1929)

After moving to Rome in 1958, Simeti “Arte Visuale” in the Palazzo Strozzi in became active as an artist in 1962 after Florence. Simeti participated several becoming acquainted with Alberto exhibitions which were part of this cur- Burri. In these years he also spent long rent, such as “New Trend 3” in Zagreb periods in London, Paris and Basel. In in 1965, and the exhibitions held in the 1963 Simeti participated in the “Review Il Cenobio Gallery in Milano, in Modena of Figurative Arts of Rome and Lazio”, and in Reggio Emilia in 1967, as well as the Premio Termoli and the exhibition other important international art shows

146 Un ovale blu - 2006, acrylic on shaped canvas, 50 x 50 cm., 19,6 x 19,6 in. 147 dedicated to that area of research, in- Century Italian art. Minimalist in concep- cluding “Programmed Art - Aktuel 65” tion, for the last 50 years, Simeti’s work and “White on White” in Bern in 1965. has comprised of dynamic patterns of From 1966 to 1969 he spent long peri- ovals that dance across the monochro- ods in New York, where he was invited matic surfaces of shaped canvases. Si- as an “Artist in Residence” by the Fair- meti’s works exist not as single entities leigh Dichinson University. but as an active experience of color and Along with artists like Lucio Fontana, shape, and ultimately a capturing of the Enrico Castellani, Piero Manzoni and dynamism that exists between these two Agostino Bonalumi, Turi Simeti played aesthetic elements. Since 1980 he has an active role in the Zero art movement a studio in Rio de Janeiro, the city where of 1960s and 1970s.Still actively creat- he uses to spend his winters and where ing today, Simeti is considered a true he has held many one-man exhibitions. pioneer, a “maestro,” of 20th and 21st He lives and works in Milan.

148 Untitled, 2011, acrylic on shaped canvas, 100 x 120 cm., 39,3 x 47,2 in. 149 Jorrit Tornquist (Graz, 1938)

In 1964 he decided to settle in Ita- Tornquist. He has also won several ly where he acquired citizenship in awards: in 1967 the prize Wittmann in 1992. Operating within the belief Vienna in 1968 Eurodomus in Turin in that color is an electromagnetic fre- 1970 Trigon 2000 Architecture Prize in quency that combines with the back- 1972 for premium color to Furniture Fair ground noise of a place and, as such, in Monza. He published noumerous is captured by our senses and inter- books on color theory and perception of feres with our mood, he has combined space and, since 1980, Tornquist started technology with sensitivity, developing teaching in many universities. In 1986 a theory of color of his own, in which Jorrit Tornquist participated to the XLII the structural-chromatic value com- International Biennial of Venice in the ex- bines with the sensitive-affective value. hibition: Art Science and color, together Since 1965, major art galleries all over with Veronesi, Le Parc, Munari, Vasarely, Europe have organized exhibitions of Max Bill, Albers, Gerstner and Fontana.

150 Opus, 1971, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm., 31,5 x 31,5 in. 151 Tornquist has also curated many Color Caramel, Wilfred Skreiner Alberto Veca, Projects related to the urban environ- Walter Titz, Enzo Biffi, Carlo Franza, ment, among these: the new waste in- Christian Holes and Romualdo Inve- cinerator of ASM Brescia, the filter in rardi. Peschiera del Garda, the former Italce- His exhibition activity, as a color artist- menti in Tavernola Lake Iseo and the scientist, is conspicuous; he has been color of the tunnel Tito Speri in Brescia. included in more than 300 exhibitions. Critics and art writers you are interested His works have been acquired by sev- in working as Tornquist including: Um- eral museums in Europe, Japan, South bro Apollonio, Gillo Dorfles, Luciano and North America.

152 Squilibrio, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 cm., 19,6 x 19,6 in. 153 Vestito cerimoniale della mongolia, 1992, acylic on folded canvas, 120 x 70 cm., 47,2 x 27,5 in.

154 Riflesso, 2014, acrylic on board and alucobond, 50 x 50 cm., 19,6 x 19,6 in. 155 Giuseppe Uncini (Fabriano in 1929 Trevi, 2008)

In 1953, he moved to Rome, invited Santoro, Uncini founded the Gruppo by sculptor Mannucci, who received Uno, which dissolved in 1967. The Uncini in his studio, giving him the search continues Hooks from ‘62 to ‘65 chance of meeting Afro, Burri, Cagli, with “Ferrocementi”, where concrete is Capogrossi, Colla, De Kooning, Leon- cast to create neutral surfaces surrounds cillo, Marca Relli and Turcato. In 1957, an iron rod that sometimes goes on in- he began his cycle of works entitled side the space , emphasizing the con- Terre, but the turning point in Unci- trast between line and surface space . ni’s artistic development was in 1958, In 1965, Uncini made a group of works, when he created his first Cementar- Strutturespazio, which he presented mato, an object-work built with cement. at the 1966 Venice Biennial. During Uncini’s first important solo exhibition the following years Uncini’s attention was presented at Galleria l’Attico in is driven by the theme of shadow and Rome in 1961. In 1962, together with how to make nothingness consistent. Biggi, Carrino, Frascà, Nato, Pace and He starts to duplicate objects with a pro-

156 Untitled, 1982, cardboard and steel on paper, 76 x 56 cm., 29,2 x 22 in. 157 file in iron. Those works were geometri- Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome cal objects made of steel or aluminium, as a separation between two rooms. and their three-dimensionality was the In 1984, Uncini presented a solo precursor of the big installations that room at the Venice Biennial. In follow them: Ombre, in which the artist 1990, he participated in the exhibi- builds both the object and its shadow. tion entitled L’altra scultura in Ma- In 1968, Palma Bucarelli commis- drid, Barcelona and Darmstadt. sioned a work, “Porta aperta con om- In 1999, Uncini exhibited his works in bra”, which was exhibited at Galleria Minimalia at the PS1 of New York.

158 Untitled, 1983, oil on cardboard, 76 x 57 cm., 29,2 x 22,2 in. 159