Artists

Grazia Varisco

Milan, Italy 1937

A leading figure in kinetic and programmed art, Grazia Varisco was born in Milan in 1937.
From 1956 to 1960 she studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts as a pupil of the painter Achille Funi. In the early 1960s she became the only woman and co-founder of Gruppo T together with Colombo, Anceschi, De Vecchi and Boriani (an artistic movement characterised by experimentation in the field of visual arts, aimed at arousing different and unpredictable reactions on the viewer. The choice of titling the group with the letter "T" is intended to recall the notion of time as a new variable of entering in a space-time dimension).

Her works range over numerous themes: the correlation between time and space, between chance and planned, but also perception and comparison between opposites, conception of becoming, transience and provisionality. The materials used are often magnets, glass, sheets of paper or iron, simple elements that invite the viewer to participate in the perceptive experiment, giving

them a unique experience between amazement and curiosity.

From 1962 to 1969 she created the so-called "Variable Light Patterns", which would later become the artist's most famous pieces. The basic idea is that the work is a real event, a becoming in real time. Thus the centrality of the figure of the artist is diminished, in favour of a
virtual involvement of the spectator. These inventions are sorts of containers illuminated by a fixed blue light that reproduce continuous changes between light and shadow, as the result of different speeds. The fluted glass screen also gives us a refraction effect.

Grazia Varisco’s works cab be found in Italian and foreign museums and public and private collections including: Farnesina Collection, San Luca Academy Collection and National Gallery of Modern Art - Rome, Museum of Modern Art in New York, MAMbo. - Bologna, Jesus Soto Museum Foundation - Ciudad Bolivar, Würzburg
Museum, Ritter Museum - Waldenbuch, Georges Pompidou Center - Paris, Modern Art Gallery - Gallarate, MAC - Lissone, Villa Croce Museum - Genoa, Permanent Museum, Prada Foundation, the galleries of Italy and Museum of 900 - Milan , Collection of Intesa Bank / Museum – Milan.