Trained at the Accademia di Brera and as an architect, Turin-based Ezio Gribaudo brings to his visionary art a distinctive sense of chromatic precision and historical determination that derive from his work as a painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. His award-winning production has been recognized with various international prizes, among which the IX Rome Quadriennale in 1965, the XXXIII Venice Biennale Prize (for graphic arts) in 1966, and the São Paulo Biennale in 1967.
Gribaudo’s prolific production and diversified activities have given him a highly significant presence in contemporary Italian art. He worked with Francis Bacon, Giorgio de Chirico, Willem De Kooning, Marcel Duchamp, Peggy Guggenheim, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, the CoBrA Group with Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Jean-Michel Atlan, and Asger Jorn, to mention a few artists and personalities with whom he crossed paths. Through his committed activity as an art publisher, he mentored and promoted many of the most relevant figures in modern art since the 1950s.
His experimentations with materials and print bring to light archeological remnants in the context of intense chromatic studies. A specific line of his work is called logogrifi (a term of Greek origins evoking fishnets and objects that are caught in a specific moment in time). They can be understood as a verbal commentary that incorporates ancient texts, maps, and artifacts within the painting’s visual space. These works are based on the engraving of white surfaces, resulting in dazzling white on white compositions that frame memories of daily objects in visual renderings reminiscent of Duchamp’s readymades. Giorgio de Chirico pointed out that Gribaudo’s work has elevated the use of white to a whole new conceptual level.
Gribaudo has also perfected the use of paper as a philosophical concept whereby incisions and collages map the archeology of human and animal experience. His use of a manual press renews the function of an old and noble instrument, now incorporated with craft and ability in the artist’s daily practice.
While Ezio Gribaudo keeps an inspired routine as a working artist, his daughter Paola Gribaudo is an active player in managing his presence and visibility in the international art markets and museums.
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