2014 Catalogue Archive

For over 40 years, Italian artist Giorgio Griffa has been making abstract acrylic paintings on unstretched canvas and linen. Griffa describes his art practice as “constant and never finished” and many of his paintings have the playful, contemplative quality of an interrupted daydream. In this work from his Canone Aureo (Italian for “Golden Ratio”) series, a progressive rainbow of rectangles (that possess golden ration proportions) drifts down the canvas at angles that reflect the golden ratio. Griffa also began writing the infinite number that represents the golden ratio below the composition, indicating that the work is the beginning of an unfinished meditation on how to organize a painting, and ultimately how we understand order in the natural world. Solo exhibitions of Griffa’s work have taken place at MACRO, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome; Neuer Kunstverein, Aschaffenburg; Städische Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; and Sonnabend Gallery, New York, among others. His work was included in the 38th and 40th Venice Bienniales, as well as in group exhibitions at Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Kunstverein Münster; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Kunstverein Hannover; Kunstverein Frankfurt; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm.