Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio (1902–1964) was an Italian painter, the formulator of
industrial painting, and a founding member of the
Situationist International. He was also a scholar of popular culture, archaeology, nomadism, and botany.
[ Mirella Bandini ''an enormous and unknown chemical reaction: the EXPERIMENTAL LABORATORY in ALBA'', published in Elisabeth Sussman (1989) ''On the passage of a few people through a rather brief moment in Time: The Situationist International 1957-1972'']
Life
Pinot-Gallizio was born in
Alba
''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingdom ...
,
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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, where he became an independent Left councilman and a chemist. In 1955, he met
Asger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...
, with whom he co-founded the Experimental Laboratory of the Imaginist Bauhaus in Alba, which was part of the
International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus
The International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus was a small European avant-garde artistic tendency that arose out of the breakup of COBRA, and was initiated by contact between former COBRA members Asger Jorn and Enrico Baj and Sergio Dang ...
, in opposition to the return to
productivism
Productivism or growthism is the belief that measurable productivity and growth are the purpose of human organization (e.g., work), and that "more production is necessarily good". Critiques of productivism center primarily on the limits to g ...
by others in the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
school, in particular
Max Bill
Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer.
Early life and education
Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversm ...
. It was held in Pinot-Gallizio's studio, a monastery from the seventeenth century, and was attended by such artists as Enrico Baj who experimented with nuclear painting techniques, Walter Olmo, who experimented with musical interventions, Ettore Sottsass, Elena Verrone, and Piero Simondo.
Pinot-Gallizio drew from his background as a chemist in developing new painting techniques. In 1956 he, along with Jorn, organized the
First World Congress of Free Artists, at which a representative from the
Lettrist International spoke, foreshadowing the foundation of the Situationist International in 1957 by members of both groups, including Pinot-Gallizio. At this conference the Italian artists withdrew from the Laboratory, and after the formation of the SI only Pinot-Gallizio and his son, Giors Melanotte, remained. He helped to make the SI known in the art world with an exhibition in Paris in 1959.
Peter Wollen
Peter Wollen (29 June 1938 – 17 December 2019) was a film theorist and filmmaker. He studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. Both political journalist and film theorist, Wollen's ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'' (1969) helped to transfo ...
''Bitter Victory: The Art and Politics of the Situationist International'', published in Elisabeth Sussman (1989) ''On the passage of a few people through a rather brief moment in Time: The Situationist International 1957-1972''
He left the SI in 1960 as it became focused on political, rather than artistic, action. He died in Alba in 1964, and the laboratory continued its work until his death.
Works
Many of Pinot-Gallizio's works were industrial paintings. Rather than a small image to be interpreted, these huge canvases were intended to cover a large area. The first of these was the
cavern of anti-matter, prepared in 1957 after the formation of the SI. It was composed of 145 meter canvases which were painted by hand or with the aid of spray guns and machines using resins invented by Pinot-Gallizio himself. It was displayed at the
Galerie René Drouin in 1959, draped around the gallery and sold by the meter.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinot Gallizio
1902 births
1964 deaths
People from Alba, Piedmont
Situationists
20th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters