Alberto Rizzi

"Waves", synthetic enamel on canvas. Cm. 96x90. 1976

 Alberto Rizzi was born in Arco di Trento in 1956; he is an artist active in many creative fields and especially in that of poetry.
In the second half of the Seventies he became interested in abstract painting, having as reference points Pollock, Burri, Rothko, and Piet Mondrian. He produced many works equally divided between informal and geometric, mostly using synthetic enamel, a technique that he privileges - especially in the case of those works that make abstract real elements - the two-dimensional image.

These aesthetic and formal research, in a closed and of limited tastes environment like that in Rovigo (in this small town has in fact spent his entire life) precluded almost any access to the exhibition spaces in town, so that very few of his works were exhibited in very few occasions.
Because of this narrow-mindedness, he suspends such activity at the beginning of the Eighties, beginning to apply to poetry. In 1989, however, thanks to contacts with other local artists (notably Alessandro Ceccotto, from Adria), he approached the Mail Art.

work created for the eponymous Italian project of mail art

The Mail Art of artistic messages; and the spreading of art through the postal network around the world., has been created in the United States in 1969 by Ray Johnson, an artist already active in the Pop Art, although attempts to use the postal system in the arts had already occurred in Italy during the Twenties of the last century, by some Futurists.
The Mail Art is developed along two lines: the creative exploration of the components for sending correspondence (envelopes, stamps, stamps, etc..) as a field of experimentation because vehicles
In the latter case, we have an invitation to take part in a "project" theme - by an artist associated with this Movement - to anyone who can be interested in it; the author of this “project” may set some ground rules (the dimensions of the works, the technique and so on) and usually undertakes, if not to organize an exhibition, at least to send a record of material received to each participant.

Work created for the U.S. Mail Art “project” “Blackbird”, based upon the poet Paul Celan.

Being the Mail Art a Movement born against what is happening in the art market, the works are not for sale, there are no juries (and therefore no prizes are awarded), there is no form of censorship.
Needless to say that in nearly half a century of development, the Mail Art has expanded its vehicle for spreading even to the fax and computer; and that the works are almost always two-dimensional and related to the universe of graphics, including the use of xerocopies.

"Clue of the passage of an angel", red sheeting,wood and rope ladder, cm. 150x50 approx., 1992

This attendance allowed Alberto Rizzi as much to see his works exhibited in dozens and dozens of places all over the world (having joined more than 300 "projects", almost two thirds of which have at least seen the creation of a documentation), as to get new creative inputs for reverting to the production of abstract works.
The works he produced from 1989 to 1997 (that means during the years in which Rizzi participated in the movement) are completely different from those of the previous cycle.

"What remains, III", iron plate with silk ribbons and objects, cm. 180x100 approx., 1993

The artist makes three-dimensional works, someway a compromise between a painting and an installation; in this case the author uses mixed techniques, also characterized by different materials (from the iron plates processed by a cutting torch to those of methacrylate) and - in particular as regards his last works – by the use of clothing.
Although if in this period Rizzi met the approval of the critics much more than in the previous decade, it was almost impossible for him to find a satisfactory way for marketing them.
For this reason, considering that the poetry made easier for him to reach the people (and by much smaller investments in time, costs and efforts) than the painting; and also interested to other artistic projects (from the participation in the "Luther Blissett operation” to the realization of shortcuts), he suspended in 1997, with the output from the field of the Mail Art, also the activity of abstractionist.
But always ready to retrace his steps, if someone will show any interest in his paintings.

Web site: www.seautos.it/..
 

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