The “Reframing History” project continues a focus on artist's estates, with the exhibition dedicated to Giovanni Pizzo: Sign Gestalt, in collaboration with the Archive of Lucia Luciano and Giovanni Pizzo.
The gallery will highlight works from the 1960s to the artists last period (he died in 2018). The idea is to bring his story, his paintings, his reflections, his diaries, his creations to Sala 1.
The exhibition will also include a tribute by Lucia di Luciano, the wife of the artist and dedicated to Giovanni Pizzo. Also included will be a video with brief segments from a documentary directed by Fabio Cherstich, on the lives of the two artists.
The vernissage includes a memorial concert by pianist Oscar Pizzo, son of the artist, with music by Philip Glass, William Duckworth and Alvin Curran.
Biography
Giovanni Pizzo was born in Veroli in 1934 and died in Rome in 2022. He graduated in architecture in Rome in 1955. In 1958 he held his first major solo exhibition at the Galleria la Fontanina in Syracusa. In 1960 he was present at the VIII Quadrennial of Art in Rome. Invited by Fiamma Vigo he exhibited in 1965 at the Numero gallery in Rome; in 196 at the Art Center of Johannesburg and participated in the X Biennial of Barcelona; in 2007 he was present at the GNAM in Rome in Combinatorie Programmed Art, in the 1960s.
Pizzo was the absolute protagonist of the season of experimentation known as programmed art, a term coined in 1962 by Umberto Eco on the occasion of the exhibition at the Olivetti store in Milan.
In 1963 he founded Gruppo 63 together with Lia Drei, Francesco Guerrieri and Lucia Di Luciano.
In 1964 he founded Operativo R together with Carlo Carchietti, Franco Di Vito and Lucia Di Luciano.
His research was characterized by the use of geometric modules, lines, squares and rectangles. Initially made with a minimal palette of blacks and whites, it was gradually enriched with saturated blues and reds. The prefix Sign Gestalt, often used as the title of the works, is intended to indicate that the operational process that leads to the form is primary with respect to the form itself.
His research has received continuous attention over the years, with exhibitions and personal group shows that uninterruptedly followed up to the present day. Lastly, the 2022 two-person exhibition Lucia Di Luciano & Giovanni Pizzo. Pogrammed Art, Marinko Sudac Collection of the Museum of Avart-Garde in Zagreb, Croatia.
Filming began in July 2022 and continued after his death until August 2023 - at the artist's home/studio in Formello (Rome) - for the creation of a documentary film on the life of Giovanni Pizzo and his wife Lucia di Luciano, with director Fabio Cherstich, successfully presented at the St.Moritz Art Festival 2023. The release of two large monographs on the artist on behalf of the Spanish publishing house Apartamento and the Italian SKIRA are scheduled for December 2023 and 2024.
His works are exhibited in public and private collections, such as MART Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, Michetti Foundation of Francavilla al Mare, HR National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb, HR VAF-Stiftung of Frankfurt, MACBA Museo de Arte Contemporáneo of Buenos Aires, EC Collection Peter Stuyvesant Art Foundation of Johannesburg.
