Senza titolo (Grazia Varisco)
Anno: 1986
Tecnica: Carbone su cartoncino
Dimensioni: 35 × 50 cm
Grazia Varisco (Milano, 1937) è una figura centrale dell’arte cinetica e programmata sin dai suoi inizi nei primi anni Sessanta quando l’artista si unisce al Gruppo T a Milano, partecipando alle manifestazioni Miriorama, alle mostre di arte programmata e a quelle del movimento internazionale Nouvelle Tendance, con occasioni di incontro e di scambio con artisti dei gruppi italiani e stranieri animati da interessi nel campo della percezione e della sperimentazione. Conclusasi l’esperienza di gruppo, dalla metà degli anni Sessanta Varisco continua la sperimentazione e l’attività espositiva in modo autonomo.
Partecipa a importanti rassegne nazionali e internazionali tra cui: Biennale di Venezia, 1964 e 1986; Quadriennale di Roma, 1965, 1973, 1999; Trigon di Graz, 1977; Arte italiana 60/82 alla Hayward Gallery di Londra, 1982; Electra al Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1983; Triennale Toyama Now al Museum of Modern Art di Toyama, 1990; Force Fields. Phases of the Kinetic al Museu d’Art Contemporani di Barcellona e alla Hayward Gallery di Londra, 2000; Beyond Geometry al Los Angeles County Museum e al Miami Art Museum, 2004; Gli ambienti del Gruppo T alla Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna di Roma, 2005; Lo sguardo del collezionista. Opere della Fondazione VAF al Mart di Rovereto, 2005; Op art alla Schirn Kunstalle di Francoforte, 2007; Arte cinetica e programmata alla Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna di Roma, 2012.
Nel 2007, su segnalazione dell’Accademia di San Luca, riceve dal Presidente Giorgio Napolitano il Premio nazionale Presidente della Repubblica per la scultura, e di conseguenza viene nominata “Accademico di San Luca”. Nel 2018 l’artista riceve dall’Accademia dei Lincei il premio A. Feltrinelli per le Arti Visive.
Sue opere figurano in musei e collezioni pubbliche e private in Italia e all’estero, fra cui la Collezione Farnesina, Collezione Accademia di San Luca e la Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna di Roma, il MAMbo di Bologna, la Fondazione Museo de Arte Moderno Jesus Soto a Ciudad Bolivar, il Museo di Würzburg, il Museum Ritter a Waldenbuch, la Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Gallarate, il MAC di Lissone, il Museo di Villa Croce di Genova, il Museo della Permanente, la Fondazione Prada, le Gallerie d’Italia e il Museo del ’900 a Milano, il Museum of Modern Art di New York ed il Centre Georges Pompidou a Parigi.
M77 Gallery presents Hosting Space, a solo exhibit by Grazia Varisco (1937), curated by Danilo Eccher. The exhibition will be open to the public from 19th November until 29th February.
The solo exhibit is presented as an aesthetic permeation which seeks to establish a dialogue between the works of art and the architecture and spaces of this gallery on via Mecenate. The result is an intense visual and three-dimensional study of space and its layout, which draws on a selection of sculptures and installations by the Milanese artist. Since Grazia Varisco began her work in the early 1960s, she has been a key figure in Italian kinetic and programmed art. The earliest pieces chosen for this exhibition derive from the 1970s, when the Mi-
lan-born artist experienced her high point in production, but the exhibit also includes recent works, revealing the intensely personal, radical, yet systematic research the artist has conducted on the grammar of space.
“From my experience, ‘chance’ is something that worms its way between probability and doubt, like a disorderly tangle. ‘Chance’ avoids and tries to dodge chaos to set itself up in space and time, ignoring the demand for precision, regularity, orthogonality, order, chronological sequence. My hesitant ‘If…’ nestles into the fold of the page, and this, by ‘chance’, rips up the rulebook that traps everything in normality through the letterpress and bookbinding process”; with these words Varisco interprets and presents the content of her research.
The pieces are thus lexicalised across the two gallery floors. These floors are not presented as worlds that are secluded and distinct from each other, but rather as communicative and permeating. Varisco’s pieces are hosted spaces that at the same time play host themselves. And it is in this way that we are greeted by the spatial magnificence of pieces such as the Oh! (1996) installation (made up of two circular iron components which mark the gallery space, playing on real and illusory three-dimensionality), Extrapagina (“Extra page”) (1983) and the extraordinary, six-metre long Grande Dépliant (“Large Leaflet”) (1983-84).
The upper floor, meanwhile, hosts Quadri comunicanti 7+1 (“Communicating pictures 7+1”) (2008), Quadri comunicanti filo rosso (“Red thread communicating pictures”) (2008), Quadri comunicanti Jar (“Jar communicating pictures”) (2012) and Comunicanti in Acciaio (“Communicating in steel”) (2008). These pieces reflect on the full/empty dichotomy, bringing into question the existence of a preestablished order, and are lined up to create a horizon that, although subtle, distinguishes the overall space and the viewer’s gaze. From the middle of the room arises Gnom-one, two, three (1984), a large sculpture made up of three square, two-dimensional, metal pieces – bent in such a way as to delineate and host the space without occupying it.
The exhibition concludes with two pieces: the ambiguous Meridiana (“Sundial”) (1974), which the Gnom-one, two, three sculpture originates from. In this piece, part of a raised perimeter creates a shadow that projects onto the flat surface, contrasting with the shadows drawn by the artist. The other concluding piece takes the form of the four Spazi Potenziali (“Potential Spaces”) (1973-76). Here, two metal frames, taken from the perimeter of the works themselves and hung up on a grille of spikes, create an imbalance and indicate, with extreme concision, a feeling of set-up causality.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, containing Danilo Eccher’s conversation with the artist.[:]
