On 26 February ABC-ARTE opens the new season with the inauguration of the one-man show of Giorgio Griffa Un mondo astratto non basta (An abstract world is not enough), patronized by Genova Municpality.
Genoa is renewing its contact with the Turin-born artist, one of the most significant of the postwar generation. Particularly important among his shows have been those held in the 1970s in the Galleria Bertesca and Samangallery, and in the 1980s in the Samangallery, La Polena and Studio Bonifacio.
An abstract world is not enough follows on from the one-man show held by ABC-ARTE in 2015 Esonerare il mondo [To relieve the world], curated by Ivan Quaroni, and the group exhibition hosted in 2018 Absolute Painting. Giorgio Griffa, Tomas Rajlich, Jerry Zeniuk, curated by Flaminio Gualdoni.
The selection of some forty works is focused on a nucleus of historic works from the 1970s in which, in line with Analytical Painting and the explorations of Arte Povera, Griffa conducted a personal exploration leading to a transcendence of the traditional concepts of painting and the identification of a new form of conscience. 'I do not represent anything, I paint' is the statement of his poetic expressed in 1972. Since then, his art has failed to provide certainties and has been a continuous questioning of painting, its intrinsic intelligence, and its redefinition.
For Griffa, painting is an action that presents itself as the totality around which we can reflect, a means not an end, and one that is connected with other fields of knowledge such as philosophy, science and music.
The inauguration of the exhibition will be accompanied by the presentation of a new monograph on Griffa published by ABC-ARTE with an interview-dialogue between Leonardo Caffo and the artist which originated in a long exchange of letters (from which the title of the exhibition is taken) and a critical essay by Alberto Fiz.
