Franco Grignai
Ét
Stanley Mason
[Deutscher Text: Seite 374]
[Texte frangais: page 376]
The following pages show a few works by the artist and designer Franco Gri-
gnani from his exhibition .A Methodology of Vision mounted in early 1975 in the
Rotonda di Via Besana, Milan. Grignani was born in Pavia in 1908 and has devoted
himself with rare singleness of purpose to experimentation in the field of visual
aesthetics. An article on his work for the Milanese printers Alfieri Lacroix was
published in Graphis 126. Editor
Auf den folgenden Seiten zeigen wir einige Arbeiten des Kiinstlers und Graphikers
Franco Grignani aus seiner Ausstellung Eine Methodik des Sehens, die Anfang 1975
in der Rotonda di Via Besana in Mailand veranstaltet wurde. Grignani wurde 1908 in
Pavia geboren und hat sich mit seltener Zielstrebigkeit dem Gebiet der visuellen
Asthetik gewidmet. Ein Artikel über seine Arbeiten ffir die Mailander Druckerei
Alfieri Lacroix wurde bereits in Graphis 126 veröffentlicht. Redaktion
Les pages suivantes présentent quelques-unes des oeuvres que l'artiste et designer
Franco Grignani a exposées au début de 1975 a la Rotonda di Via Besana, a Milan,
sous le titre de Une Methodologie de la visionNé a Pavie en 1908, Grignani s'est voué
imperturbablement a l'expérimentation dans le domaine de l'esthétique visuelle. Nous
avons publié dans Graphis 126 un article sur les travaux qu'il a réalisés pour Pimpri-
merie milanaise Alfieri Lacroix. La Redaction
1) A view of the Rotonda di Via Besana, Milan, where the exhibition took place.
1) Innenaufnahme der Rotonda di Via Besana, Mailand, wo die Ausstellung stattfand.
1) Intérieur de la Rotonda di Via Besana, Milan, ou l'exposition a eu lieu.
2) Bi-dissociacfone simmetrica, 70X70 cm, acrylics/Akrylfarben/acrylique, 1970.
3) Dissociazione dal hordo, 73X73 cm, acrylics/Akrylfarben/acrylique, 1970.
4) Psicoplastica, 70x70 cm, acrylics/Akrylfarben/acrylique, 1971.
5) Isoplastica, 73X73 cm, acrylics/Akrylfarben/acrylique, 1973.
6) Psicoplastica, 73X73 cm, acrylics/Akrylfarben/acrylique, 1973.
372
What we see is only what we think we see. Regarded in a corte
concave mirror, our world becomes its own travesty. Hp
viewed through moving water are fragmented into figments ofh c
selves. What is visual truth? Franco Grignani went in search of it .jtiTo
life, has been fascinated ever since by the phenomena and fallajft I -
perception. He has lived, one might say, in a borderland between pass
science, but also in that far more bewildering domain between the tola 11
eye and the half-explored spaces of the mind.
In his youth he had some contact with F.T. Marinetti, the spoljmff
of the Italian Futurists, and his affinities with this specifically sLja
movement can still be felt. He uses the instruments of science pint 1
research, he proceeds systematically and presents his results ,.arl. 1
impeccable execution of the perfectionist. Yet Grignani is more'ar. c
researcherhis eye is always that of the artist and designer. 'I ha®fl
the good fortune,' he says, 'to occupy myself for years with gjpn: v
design... Concern with visual communications means turningjr
studies to concrete ends, and it is precisely in this professional a.y.r
that I have been able to apply the principles of my analyses.'
This study of visual patterns soon led him into the intricate flfei*:
optical illusionstwo-dimensional figures take on plastic values (H)
static designs become dynamic (Fig. 3), stereoscopic vision prdLe
the illogical and irrational impression (Fig. 4). Grignani was prodnq s
Op Art before the name existed. His theories carried him into the dban
of gestalt psychology, which often confirmed his own findings. #.8g£ti
He has never rested in a backwater of uninspired repetitive wcBm?""'1
some isolated problem, but has always ranged widely. His studiirj:
therefore be divided into several phasesin the early fifties he turiJiri
attention to the flou, the unsharp image; later he went on to distottoai
to moiré, to patterns similar to those familiar to engineers from c«ra<
stress analysis; in the sixties he was investigating modular repctlfpn
from which he passed to periodic structureshis series of psychop ton
began in 1969, while to his most recent works he applies the ternta
plastics', which in brief are confrontations of the perceived forrrrtc
the imagined form.
The objection is sometimes raised to Op and Concrete Art, espctjuo
in their systematic and computer-aided branches, that they are realhtoï
mechanical games, sterile pastimes that will never serve to exprejln: -
greater experiences of the human spirit. Grignani's productions coito
this charge in three waysThey serve a useful purpose because they 4brlJ
our psychological and physiological understanding of the peratett
functions; they have proved their practical effectiveness in theifir
school of advertising design and communication; andperhaps
important of allevery one of them is a significant image that impjrni Ibi
itself on our imagination and possesses in large measure somethiirfe
might best describe as intellectual beauty.
