Artist of the moment…Roberto Crippa

{ April 6, 2013 @ 12:49 am } · { Uncategorized }
{ Tags: Daniel Chadwick, Italian, Lucio Fontana, Roberto Crippa, Space }

Roberto Crippa was a world renown painter and sculptor that was born in Milan, Italy in the year 1921.

Crippa attended the Brera Art Academy in Milan, Italy.

Price range information:  The artist worked in many mediums. Collages start at a few thousand and reach to $35,000. Oils range $5,000 to $55,000. No pricing available for sculpture works.

Produced his spiral work series from 1948 to 1952.

Crippa was part of the Spacialist movement, artists that were looking to break away from the mold and attack the flatness of a painting, to open it up to another cosmic dimension. The founder of the movement was another Italian painter named Lucio Fontana. Fontana was born in Argentina but moved to Milan, Italy whilst a young child. He also attended the Brera Art Academy. Fontana officially founded the movement in 1947. An example of Fontana’s style is below. The work is oils on canvas but look closely how the artist has attacked the flat surface and created wonderful depth and texture for the viewer.

Participant of the Venice Biennale.

After exploring space with painting Crippa moved on to collage works. Using basic geometric shapes and wonderful complimentary color schemes the artist was able to create wonderful works that were abstract with wonderful textures and movement.

The artist also explored sculpture and relief works that were painted in grays. Again movement through the picture plane and even above and below it is a main theme of the work.

The artist died in a plane crash at the age of fifty years old in Italy in the year 1972.

In comparing the artist to a contemporary artist  it would be English sculptor Daniel Chadwick. This mobile work is a great example of using basic geometric shapes to attack the flatness of a painting.

In this clip we view an artwork by Crippa at auction:

I enjoy this artist for his groundbreaking views on space and movement. His pictures also remind me of modern master Rex Ray with his use of the spiral I was reminded of the many hours spent at grandmothers house playing with the old spirograph games from the 1960s and 1970s! What a fun time!

D