Roberto Grippa
Covered by droit de suite
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"La Mia Foresta"
Signed R. Grippa and dated 1962 verso. Cork, vellum, wood, and collage on panel 145 x 113 cm.
Provenance
Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York.
Acquired from the above by the mother of the then owner circa 1970.
Christies, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art, 20 October 2004, lot 46.
Private Collection, acquired at the above sale.
Artist
Italian painter and sculptor. Born at Monza, Milan. Studied at the Brera Academy, Milan, under Carpi and Carrà. First one-man exhibition at the Galleria Bergamini, Milan, 1947. After a brief period of geometrical abstraction, collaborated with Fontana in the Spazialismo movement and signed the Spazialismo manifestos of 1950-3; friendships also with Dova, Peverelli, Donati.
Pioneered action painting in Italy with his calligraphic spiral paintings, ca.1949-52. Partly through contacts with the Surrealists Lam, Matta and Brauner, Crippa turned in the mid 1950s to painting totem-like personages, and from 1956 also made cast iron sculptures of these. In 1958 he began to make collage-reliefs incorporating wood, newspaper, etc., evoking imaginary landscapes or figures; his later collage-paintings tended to become more brilliant in colour. A champion at aerial acrobatics, he was killed in a plane crash at Bresso, Milan.