Page 9 - World of Art magazine (2000)

franco verdi itaLY

Franco verdi (Giovanni Francesco Silvano Verdi di belmont), born stephan, Wien austria; palazzo del broletto, novara italy; Galerie appunti sul nostro tempo, lonato italy; 1972 tendenze nell’arte
in 1934 italy. he studied art, literature and philosophy. published im taxispalais, lnnsbruck austria; Galleria sincron, brescia italy; d’oggi, Galleria 2b, bergamo italy; operazioni sul visivo, Galleria
numerous books and graphic works. museo civico bologna italy;1969 visuelle poesie Westfälicher barba, castellanza italy; 1973 an international encyclopaedia of
group exhibitions 1966 open theatre and Gallery berkeley kunstverein, münster Germany; arte registered, mentana plans, anderson Gallery, richmond usa; signos Espacio arte,
usa; mostra internazionale di poesia sperimentale, casa del karnhoval, rieti italy; visuelle poesie, residenz, salzburg austria; club pueblo, madrid spain; Galleria peccolo, livorno italy; arte
mantegna, mantova italy; Galleria sala cultura, modena italy; confronto 69, Galleria sincron, brescia italy; deutsche bibliotek moltiplicata internazionale, studio 2b, bergamo italy; 1974 Grafica
Galleria Juana mordo, madrid spain; arlington one, arlington roma italy; liberté de parole, theatre du vieux colombier France; multipla, assessorato cultura della provincia di torino italy;
usa; Galleria barandarian, san sebastian spain; lettura del Exposicion internacional de poesia visual, zaragoza spain; Grafica 74, Galleria andromeda, bologna italy; omaggio al bianco
linguaggio visivo, castello del valentino, torino italy; 1967 palazzo proposte 1969, studio Farnese, roma italy; Galeria u, montevideo su bianco, Galleria il Gelso, lodi italy; 1975 opening event, pierce
monte pietà, castelfranco veneto italy; libreria Feltrinelli, Firenze uruguay; liberarse, universidad montevideo uruguay; 11 giorni college art Gallery, la usa; recycling, israel museum Jerusalem
italy; club turati, milan italy; rotor, valladolid, cuenca san di arte collettiva, pejo italy; Galleria sincron, brescia italy; centro israel; 1977 la forma della scrittura, Galleria d’arte moderna
sebastian spain; Gallerie denise davy, paris France; segni nello suolo, milano italy; 1970 Galleria Giovio, como italy; Galeria danae, bologna italy; scrittura visuale, ca’ dei ricchi, treviso italy; saloni
spazio, castello di s.Giusto, trieste italy; Galleria sincron, brescia madrid spain; de poesia avanzada, universidad de zaragoza del sale, venezia italy; scrittura visuale, Galleria del centro udine
italy; studio 2b, bergamo italy, 1968 poesie de recherche, les spain; Exempla, comune di marciana italy; künstlerhaus palais italy; palazzo della regione trento italy; 1978 carn.era, Galleria
vaguants, nice France; Galleria l’lncontro, Firenze italy; Galleria thurn und taxis, bregenz austria; Fondo de cultura universitaria de amicis, Firenze italy; War memorial Gallery sydney canada;
centro documentazione visiva, piacenza italy; Galerie college, montevideo uruguay; Galleria artivisive, roma italy; bildungshaus national Gallery of victoria, melbourne australia; mantua mail
alpbach; un paese più l’avanguardia, anfo italy; Galerie nachts st. schloss, puchberg stedelijk museum amsterdam holland; 1971 78, casa del mantegna,mantova italy; vi biennale internazionale »

In his concrete painting Franco Verdi isolates mysterious immediateness of the visual
the word on the presupposition that it Franco verdi transForMs the communication” (in “Because we make our
embodies the primary element of the lexical, gold and the silver in city so ugly” Milan I967). It is a question of a
the narrative connection of the same words, color and light diagnosis, although apparently puzzling in its
not being so important for the attainment of a logic brought forward from an architect that
rational meaning, arousing feelings and wants to see with the eyes and not with the
images, that go out also but from the presence words by mind the things and not the descriptions of the
LUiGi taLLarico
materico-graphics, to which it is tied up the same things.
freedom of the words. translated by But in the Verdi’s contriteness before the
In the exchange of roles, the ideographic poet teresa blanchard words can be read, they have to be seen.
Pound remembered that the poetry is “simply Didn’t Leon Battista Alberti say after all that
loaded language of meaning to the maximum the dignity of the architect is founded upon the
possible degree,” while Montale said, “nobody cultural and projectual commitment?
would write verses if the problem of the poetry And didn’t Boccioni remind that the artist,
would be the one to be understood.” who more does, more sees?
But to avoid the worry of Montale it is On the other hand in the limited particular
enough to load the language of which the word Franco verdi of the conceptual or of the concrete, of the
is the support. From the moment, however, Megahens word that denies the mysterious immediateness
that “each word is a composite nature, 1984 of the visual concepts and the optical signals
resulting from the combination of more that they do not look in the instruments of
minimal elements of vowels that consonants, it knowledge of the things, so that many of “the
follows that the poetry, confirm Verdi giving freedom of the words” have not always known
reason to Pound and to Montale on it, it is how to balance the conceptual and the visual.
prone to isolate and to emphasize the word, for In the linguistic and chromatic of Franco
which it is the subject of architectural Verdi the two ways have always looked for a
construction of it,” soliciting as in the freedom collaborative effectiveness even when the path
of the words, in this regard, that active has preferred some particular meanings, but
character that is quite of the Poundian charge. without derogate from the extreme active
Consequently these more active solicitations function of the text, between word, sign and
that determine the relationship between action color.
and acting, not so much a meaning of symbolic Franco Verdi slices the verbal structure of his
or rational value, as new feelings and as they Walls, a period of his extremely exciting
are realized. Those are not determined at the painting, and elevates it to ornament,
origin, but elaborated in an architectural admonition, dream, play.
construction during the lived-living of whom Franco Verdi transforms the gold and the
lives time. silver of his subjects’ plots in the sign of the
But the isolated word and denied to word and of the light.
completed lexical formulation in the intent to The conceptual journey of Franco Verdi
become understood doesn’t exhibit the subject begins when he leaves the explanatory and
of the language, that is his autonomous and representative paths. Then, and only then,
unrelated presence, from the moment that - words and signs leave the way to the color and
says Verdi- “the letters of the alphabet do not to the light.
lend themselves to a reading exclusively optics The luministic chromatism is not born from
in which the varied chromatics recognize a the abstraction, from the removal of anything.
new formal syntax, a new world of signs, of The luministic chromatism is born from the
codes always unpredictable, however always to concreteness of the abstract.
surprise” (L. Meneghelli, “The walls of Franco His modus operandi does not refuse the
Verdi”, in The Arena, Verona, VI. 1981). problems of the historical vanguards, that
In fact the architect and theoretical of the already at the beginning of the century had
architecture, Philip Johnson, has observed, sensed that the poetic wisdom is not born first
“words have a tendency to become tools of and in an aural manner in men of the young
knowledge... to increase the interest in the nations gifted “with a corporeal imagination”
value of the description of the things rather (G. B. Vico).
than of the things themselves. Words are for Philosophy, like the bird of Minerva, arrives
the mind not for the eyes. Words... deny the at the sunset, when men are no longer beasts, »

spEcial issuE 2000 world of art 7