Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio (1902–1964) was an Italian painter, the formulator of industrial painting, and a founding member of the

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

. 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 Kingd ...

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

, 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. The largest collection of Jorn's works� ...

, 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 Dangelo ...

, 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 ...

by others in the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

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 silversmit ...

. 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 Ettore Sottsass (; 14 September 1917 – 31 December 2007) was an Italian architect and product designer. He was known for his designs of furniture, jewelry, glass, lighting, homeware and office supplies. He also worked on numerous buildings an ...

, 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 The Letterist International (LI) was a Paris-based collective of radical artists and cultural theorists between 1952 and 1957. It was created by Guy Debord and Gil J. Wolman rejoined by Jean-Louis Brau and Serge Berna as a schism from Isidor ...

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 an English film theorist and filmmaker. He studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. Both a political journalist and film theorist, Wollen's ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'' (1969) helped ...

''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 metre 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