Wirtualny Leksykon Biblioteki Głównej Akademii Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie

Grataż – fenomenologia techniki malarstwa surrealistycznego

Grattage [.pdf]

Fenomenologia della tecnica
pittorica surrealista

Testi ed opere di Giovanni Guida

The Grattage is a surrealist painting technique which consists in “scratching” – with pointed tools of various kinds – the still fresh painting spread on the canvas. This téchne has a strong symbolic value, somehow very close to the modus operandi of the artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, who worked on marble not “by way of placing”, but “by force of removing” this sentence therefore expresses the Platonic concept of the pre-existing idea, but also, and above all, exemplifies a struggle against the material in order to discover, free and bring out the figure.The mechanical removal of the chromatic layers symbolically refers to the “unveiling” of the truth of things under the veil of appearances. The grattage was further studied by the Italian artist Giovanni Guida, who refines this pictorial procedure through waterproofing phases – with the help of some special resins – of the various pictorial levels in order to enhance the brilliance of the colors, starting from from the underlying pictorial layers up to the outermost part of the pictorial layer, creating strong chromatic and chiaroscuro contrasts.