Page 35 - Studio International - May 1966

Mario Giansone

by Giuseppe Marchioni

Born in Turin, 1915; active Giansone's plastic works are firmly rooted in modern life which could not exist without a craftsman's skill and a
as a sculptor for twenty-five
years; declined invitation to and Turin architects have created a splendid background determination to achieve perfection.
participate in Venice Biennale for these works which make use of traditional, indeed Shipyard is composed of a wooden surface from which
of 1964 on score of 'preoccu- ancient, methods to reflect our mechanized society or the clear and precise lines are furrowed out, emphasizing
pation with intensive research
work'. First one-man genetic development of a figurative idea. light and shade in a rhythmic, harmonious whole. Here
exhibition Galleria Bussola, Actuality is a somewhat suspect word which has acquired too is an ideogram: the synthesis of a quest which is
Turin, October-November overtones of 'representation'. By actuality I mean the worked out and stated on a flat surface. The sculptor de-
1965; represented in many
private and public collections, active presence in time of a mind or conscience. Giansone lights in wood for its own sake. The highway, War, Aero-
including Gallery of Modern has never felt a need to be 'up-to-date' : he developed, in plane on the runway, Dancing girl, Rock and Roll, could all be
Art, Turin, Olivetti Coll., a solitude almost without counterpart today, a vision of inserted as panels in an architectonic structure to confirm
Umberto Agnelli Coll.
form composed of meditation and experience. Solitude as the principle of integration of art forms.
alienation from any artistic movement, group or clan in Giansone's work in wood could be defined as 'positive',
contemporary society: austere solitude, not as a kind of i.e. when he works in relief, and 'negative', i.e. when he
affectation but by purposeful choice. He has searched for works with hollowed-out shapes; in the former his carv-
a valid form in which to express his ideas, for a style which ings have a heightened autonomy of expression, but in
reflects 'genetic progression and formal relationships' (in both he captures the essence of today through well-chosen
the sculptor's own words), and only through prolonged symbols. The aeroplane, the highway, the shipyard, are
study has he learnt to reduce his material (wood, stone, all parts of the concrete reality transforming our vision
porphyry, bronze) into a stylized image which links artist and changing our standards of judgement, symbols of an
and craftsman through a kind of obsessive concentration. environment made up of machinery and buildings and
The artist combines, in an almost uncanny way, certain destroying the roots within us of a possible reaction in the
cultural traditions—of Egypt, Peru, ancient and primitive name of 'classical tradition'.
art forms, but expressed in a new manner—with an inven- A comparison between old friezes, in which figures of dan-
tive technique bearing the stamp of virtuosity, especially cers were arranged in accordance with musical rhythm,
in the carving of wood and porphyry (which demands an and Giansone's own wooden panel, which also represents
absolute mastery of the material). The shipyard, carved in dancers—or rather stylized forms linked by veins reminis-
heavy wood; Jazz—a genetic principle in hard stone; The cent of those of a leaf—emphasizes the complete break
stone of love and its genetic principle in green rock; The atomic between ancient and modern worlds. Jazz—a genetic
The shipyard
Azobe wood aircraft carrier in porphyry; these are just a few examples principle, whose formal idea has some precedents in primi-
Height 291 in. Length 551 in. of his mastery, typical examples of a formal concept tive objects, provides in its progression of different