Background
Grazia Varisco was born on October 5, 1937, in Milan, Italy. She spent her childhood and youth in Milan.
Grazia Varisco reassembles the biggest version of Variable light screen for Museo de Arte Moderno, Ciudad Bolivar, Milano, 1981
Grazia Varisco was born on October 5, 1937, in Milan, Italy. She spent her childhood and youth in Milan.
Grazia Varisco finished middle school at Parini district of Milan and a local high school. To pursue her training, Varisco entered the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in 1956. At the institution, she had been taught for four years by a neoclassical style painter Achille Funi. Among Varisco’s classmates were Davide Boriani, Gabriele De Vecchi, Gianni Colombo and Giovanni Anceschi.
Grazia Varisco began her artistic career from the group founded by her classmates at the Academy and called Gruppo T which she joined in 1960. A member of the group, she took part at their exhibitions, in particular, Arte Programmata in Milan in 1962, Nouvelle tendance in Zagreb a year later and the Miriorama series held since 1960 at different times in Milan, Genoa, Tokyo, Rome, Padua and Venice.
The demonstrations of artworks at the group exhibitions were soon followed by personal shows, the first of which took place at the Vismara Gallery in 1966. Three years later, came the exhibition at the Schwarz Gallery, then at the Uxa Gallery in Novara in 1971, and finally at the Naviglio Gallery in 1972. At this period, Varisco presented as well her artworks at two Biennales, the Rome Quadriennale (1973) and Venice Biennale the following year.
Varisco combined her membership in Gruppo T with the graphic designer’s activity at different organizations such as the multinational retailer La Rinascente, design company Kartell, Abitare magazine and the Milan City Council where she was involved in the Milan Intercomunale urban Plan.
To enrich her artistic mind, Grazia Varisco travelled in 1969 to the United States and had visited the country many times till 1973. There, she continued to enrich her artistic mind by exchanging ideas with the local artists, academicians and professors.
The next period of Grazia Varisco’s career started in 1979 when the artist read lectures on graphics and visual communication at the European Institute of Design and at the Società Umanitaria, both in Milan. Two years later, she was invited at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts as a Professor of Theory of Perception. She had held the position till 2007.
Among the personal exhibitions of this period were the shows at the Galleria Sagittaria, Pordenone in 1987, Triennale of Toyama at the Museum of Modern Art (1990), the presentation at Centro Cultural da P.U.C. in Rio de Janeiro in 1991, and four years later, the personal exhibition at the Vismara Arte in Milan.
Varisco had also a lecture course on visual communication at the Polytechnic University of Milan from 1999 to 2000.
The significant personal exhibitions of the 21th century include Antologica di Grazia Varisco at Fioretto Arte in Padua, Grazia Varisco. Projects and Works in 2006 at the Galerie Hoffmann in Friedberg, at the Museo della Permanente in Milan in 2012 and the presentation of her If series at the Cortesi Gallery, London in 2015.
As to the most recent group shows, where Grazia Varisco demonstrated her creations, were The Concrete Utopia. Ivan Picelj and New Tendencies at the Cortesi Gallery in Lugano, Italian Kinetic Art at the M&L Fine Art in London, both in 2016, and Focusing Room at the ArtCircle in London the next year.
Now, the artist lives and works in Milan.
Grazia Varisco is a prolific and talented artist whose imaginative creations are preserved in permanent collections of many museums and galleries among which are Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Bologna, the Museum Ritter in Waldenbuch, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Fondazione Prada, Gallerie d’Italia and the Museo del Novecento in Milan.
Varisco’s Frangible Pattern R+N Ortogonale+Inclinato was bought in 2015 at Sotheby's for $53,140.
Magnetic Table with Square Elements
Variable Light Screen R. Cube
Oh!
Mercurial
Magnetic Table. Homage to L.F.
Frangible Pattern
Mercurial
Variable Light Screen + Quadrionda 130
Variable Light Screen RR66
Delete
Communicating Paintings
Magnetic Table, 3+2+1+1 Imparaticcio a telaio
Extrapagina BN
Silences
Spazio Potenziale
Variable Light Screen R.VOD/SPIRO
Variable Light Kinetic Screen + Quadrionda 130
Communicating Paintings
2+2+2 trasparent '61 - 91
Variable Light Screen
Variable Light Screen
Variable Light Screen
Quotations:
"Artist!? They say … and I enjoy it! Because the word “Artist” does not close me in a defined and limited activity, it gives me a wider and more free space … and also because it is both male and female … and it’s not a small thing even today."
"Perception is an experience that provides an exchange of information. The body, through these mechanisms senses, receives and reacts to stimuli."
"I would like to be able to express my feeling to have enjoyed a great privilege (I would like to know who to thanks) of which I have always felt responsible, especially for young people and many students, who sometimes reach me with words and signs of gratitude that touch me deep."
Grazia Varisco has two children.
