getulio alviani, called an inventor in plasticity, designer, graphic artist, theoretician, collector and active generator in the cultural field, was born in udine on september 5th 1939. Even as a boy he showed an interest in art, especially in problems of visual perception and information, and experimented in the field of painting. His interest soon focused on analyzing the complex world of "production" and "construction". In 1954 he began to work in the studios of architects and engineers; later he won first place in a competition for the design of electric pipes, and then designed automatic switches for Ave, a well known company, of which he became artistic director. This awoke his interest in analyzing problems involving the functioning and nature of objects that can be solved throught improved design. in this phase he became aware of the problem of focusing that remained at the core of his work in the visual field.
at the end of the fifties he concentrated on problems of structural plasticity. In 1958 he began to make "vibrating texture surfaces" in steel and aluminium, in the beginning free hand-made forms which later became orderly and geometrically constructured; the works could be multiplied, reproduced in series, because they were the result of precise programming. their special texture soaked in and reflected light and this, due to the very nature of metal, created a complex play of reflections that kept changing the light of the surface, shaping different images depending on the angle of vision. as alviani said, "none of those object have any value because of their composition, it does not matter at all what shape they are, and it must be said that all of them, even those that are very different from one another, are one and same object".
these surfaces were first exhibited in 1961 at his first one-man show in thew mala galerija in lubljana, where his friendship with zoran kržišnik and umbro apollonio began.
in the 1960 he also created "monochromatic polyvalent structures" which depended on light both on the structural and on the phenomenological level. in 1961 he created object that could be serially reproduced and, always remaining in the field of light vibrations, various programmes for optically-dynamic structures.
at the beginning of the sixties his ties with the greatest protagonists of constructivism began, from georges vantongerloo to konrad wachsmann, from josef albers to max bill.
his graphic research i salso part of his activity as an "invento in plasticity". he received many international awards for this work; it began at the end of 1959, developed more intensely after 1962, and always remained a vital part of his creativity. in 1979 alviani wrote a text in which he summed up his research. he wrote that for him graphic art was an autonomous expression in the field of fine arts: "like all my work, my prints have an autonomous existence and are not, as often happens, a transfer onto paper of other more important works or subjects that can be expressed in other media, s well. in my case they always address problems in plasticity that can and must be perceived and solved only by using that particular technique, and it is there that i try to achieve those optimum results given, for example, by screen printing in the field of colour, and by black-and-white photo-mechanical lotography in the case of the sign".
in 1962 alviani took part at the "programmed art" exhibition organized for the olivetti company by bruno munari, and presented by umberto eco, first in venice, than in rome, trieste, düsseldorf and london. he had one-man exhibitions in the gallery of contemporary art in zagreb, studio f in ulm where he was invited by almir mavigner, and in the galleria la canava in trieste; in the same year he designed mirror structures of flat and curved aluminium foil.
in 1963 he began to design a series of printed textiles with kinetic-optical patterns for germana marucelli, and then also for rudi gernreich; this started the "op" fashion which then spread world-wide. because of the various combinations of colours and lines characteristic of modular shaping, clothes made of these fabrics, even more than when the fabric is pleated, created new pictures with every movement of the person wearing them. the same year he also had one-man exhibition in the stadtisches museum schloss morrsbroich, and too part in numerous important international exhibitions, including "new tendencies 2" in zagreb, venice, leverkusen and düsseldorf, "bewegte bereiche der kunst" in krefeld e "zero" in berlin; in that year he exhibited for the first time at the graphic biennale in ljubjiana, at which he afterwards regularly partecipated.
he became a member of the international movement "nouvelle tendence recherches continuelles", and in paris ivan picelj introduced him to denise rené in whose gallery be began to exhibit. in 1964 he showed at the exhibition "mouvement II" organized by that gallery. he also showed at the "nouvelle dendence" exhibition in the palais du louvre, and in italy he exhibited in the galleria del deposito in genoa, a coperative of artists specialized in creating multiples, whose members included max bill, lohse, vasarely, gerstner and others, and in the galleria lorenzelli in milan at the exhibition "44 protagonisti della visualità strutturale". he was also invited to the XXXII venetian biennale. in 1964 he began to create "chromostructures", and to study standard wall elements and the problems of integrating the work of art into the architectural ambience, which continued throughout the sixties and the seventies. the importance of ambiental relations turned his attention to psychological and social aspects of art, the inclusion of the public in "environments" in which the observer could personally modify the work, activating ita s he moved. for example, in the work he realized in 1969 for the palais des beaux arts in brussels, and which was finally placed in gorinchem in the netherlands, rotating mirror surfaces in a colourd space determined inter-relations between the viewer and the ambience. when the viewer physically entered the work he became its protagonist, and thus partecipated in its dynamics.
in 1965, william seitz invited him to partecipate at "the responsive eye" exhibition in the museum of modern art in new york, a landmark exhibition that spread the fame of optic art worldwide, but only its superficial effects, making it a fashion and thus dealing a mortal blow to its scientific fondations. its great expansion led to vulgarization, and finally to imitation. in the same year alviani was invited to other exhibition, too "art today: kinetism and optic" in the albright-knox art gallery in buffalo, "art and mouvement" in tel aviv museum, "nul 1965" in the stedelijk museum in amsterdam, a "lumiére, mouvement et optique" in the palais des beaux arts in brussels, and "perpetuum mobile" in the galleria l’obelisco in rome.he also had one-man exhibitions, including those in the galerie smith di brussels, galleria del naviglio in milan, and in the galleria la polena in genoa. in the following year he partecipated at international exhibitions like "XXI salon des réalites nouvelles" in paris, "weiß und weiß" in the kunsthalle in bern, "structure et mouvement" in the galerie denise rené in paris and, in nagauki in japan at "the exhibition for the first prize of the museum of contemporary"; for the first time he partecipated at the international graphics biennale in tokyo. he had one-man exhibition in the galleria notizie in turin, in the galleria del leone in venice, and in the (op) art galerie in esslingen.
in 1967 he began to design "light objects" with termo-mechancial propulsion, and studied chemical phenomena, primarily concentrating on the "barrier" the develops between the eye and the object as a result of head, cold, humidity, evaporation. in those years he developed the theory, and wrote a programmatic manifesto, about "pneumatic space" whose volume changes depending on function and possibility of use. he partecipated at "lo spazio dell’immagine", the first exhibition completely devoted to ambiental art, held in the halls of the palazzo trinci in foligno; at "the mouvement" exhibition in the museum of contemporary art in montreal, and at "von konstruktivismus zur kinetic 1917 bis 1967" in krefeld.
in 1968 he made a seriesof water and fire objects, which he used to create "happenings". his most important exhibitions in the years were: "l’art vivant" in fondation maeght in saint paul de vence, "cinétisme spectacle environment" in genoble, "op kunst" in the kunsternes hus di oslo, "danuvius 68" in bratislava, "ars moltiplicata" in the kunsthalle in cologne, "mouvement" in detroit, "multiples" in the musée des beaux art in brussels and "documenta 4" in kassel.
in the following year he intensifed his study of human behaviour as part of ambiental problems throught focusing visual perception; he partecipated at the exhibitions "konstruktive kunst, elemente – prinzipien" in nüremberg, in "kunst als spiel – spiel als kunst" in the städtische kunsthalle di recklinghausen and at "from constructivism to kinetic art" in the kavier gallery in chicago; he had one-man exhibitions in the galerie alice pauli in lausanne and in the galerie d’art moderne in basel. from the early seventies to the present alviani’s interest in coluor never waned, he studied colour phenomenology, in the beginning gradual, then quantitative, always with the greatest possible consistency and precision. his basic principle is that "non-programming causes choas and energy dispersion", and he created surfaces and three-dimentional structures based on mathematical formulas. from the beginning of his work alviani followed all his research with technical, constructivistic and phenomenological texts that supported and confirmed the solution of the problem he was addressing.
in 1970 he showed at the "vitalità del negativo" exhibition in rome, and the exhibited in the galeria conkright in caracas. in 1971 he partecipated at the "arte concreta" in the westfalische kunsterein in münster, and had a one-man exhibition in the galeria denise rené/ hans mayer di düsseldorf. his one.man exhibition included: in 1972 in the galeria st. stephan in vienna, in the galleria in centro in naples; in 1973 in the galerie reckermann in cologne; in 1974 in the krzyztofory galeria in cracow. in 1975 he exhibited at XIII biennale in sao paulo in brazil.
in 1976 he became full professor at the painting department of academy of fine arts in carrara, where he worked until 1981 when he mived to venezuela. in 1978 he was invited to partecipate at the exhibition "l’altro occhio di polifemo" organized by the modern art gallery in bologna. he had one-man exhibitions in 1979 in the neue galerie al landesmuseum johanneum in graz, and in 1980 in the contemporary art pavilion in ferrara, and the galerie denise rené in paris. for over decade he broke off his creative work, and his intense exhibiting activities decreased.
from 1981 to 1985 he devoted himself to the reconstruction and direction of the modern art museum in ciudad bolivar, which he turned towards constructivistic art and popularized its protagonists through organizing their exhibition and editing and works like the monograph about josef albers published by arca edizioni in 1988. he collaborated at the periodical "flash-art". in 1982 he showed at the exhibition "les labyrinthes" in brussels, and in the following year at the historic exhibition "arte programmata e cinetica 1953-63. l’ultima avanguardia" in the palazzo reale in milan, organized by lea vergine. in 1986 he exhibited in the galerie schoeller di düsseldorf and at the XLII venice biennale dedicated at "arte e scienza - colore"; a year later he partecipated at "l’art et la couleur" in the musée des arts di cholet, and at two exhibitions of exact art organized by the wilhelm-hack-museum in ludwigshafen: "von zweii quadraten" and "mathematik in der kunst der letzten dreissing jahre". in 1992 he exhibited at the "trigon-identität differenz" in graz, and in the same year realized "mai wai" in the galleria seno in milan. "mai wai" is a plastic happening, an obstacle, the deliberate depriving of optical and mental viewing as a way of denuncing the miserable state of modern man. in 1993 he partecipated in the project "territorio italiano" in spazio opus in milan, and at the XLV venice biennale. in 1994 he exhibited in the muzeum okregrowe in chelm; in 1995, in the galeria bwa stara in lublin; in 1996, in the galeria bwa avantgarda in wroclaw, and in the tivoli gallery di ljubljana and in 1997 in the muzej suvremene umjetnosti in zagreb.
the following year had one-man exhibition in the galleria dina carola in naples, and in 1999 started the collaboration with the little galleria gigo in novigrad. in 2000 a graphic review is taken care of galleria bielska bwa in bielsko – biala and in the same year, he had one-man exhibition in the galleria schoeller in düsseldorf. always in 2000 is present in the historical section at the exhibition "open ends", in the museum of modern art in new york. in 2001 had one-man exhibition in the galerie conny van kasteel in egmond ann zee, in the galerie cuenca in ulm and a monographic of metal surfaces in the städtisches museum - gelsenkirchen, as well as a review in the mondriaanhuis in amersfoort. in 2002 showed in the galleria spazia in bologna and in the galleria placentia in piacenza.
in memory of anna palange is promoter of a donation of 170 works entitled "22 del futuro per il futuro di vukovar" presented in zagabria and then traveling in the countries of origin of the individual artists. in the same year he is invited in buenos aires biennal. between 2001 and 2003 is present a "luce movimento & programmazione", itinerant exhibition in ulm, mannheim, gelsenkirchen, kiel, schwerin and klagenfurt museums. in 2003 had one-man exhibition in the galleria seno in milan and his works are exposed to "il mito della velocità" in mantova. in 2004 he was to "zero" in the palazzo delle papesse in siena. in the last years became interested almost exclusively to architectural projects and carried out an intense cultural activity with writings and exhibitions concerning exclusively the research of the major and most significant protagonists of visual and concrete art.
in 2005 he was to "l’oeil moteur" in the musée d’art moderne in strasburgo, "dien neven tendenzen" in ingolstadt and "cineticos" in the centro de arte reina sofia in madrid and instituto tomie chatake in san paolo inl brasil; in 2008 to "bit international" in the ZKM in karlsruhe. in 2012 partecipated to "ghosts in the machine" in the new museum of contemporary art in new york and the next year to "dynamo un siecle de lumiere et mouvement dans l’art 1913 – 2013". before completely quitting, almost ten years ago, he had been interested almost exclusively in architectural projects and had continued to carry out a cultural activity with writings for exhibitions on the exact art.
getulio alviani, after a life full of professional successes and world awards, dies at 78 years old.