Guido Molinari, 1962
BIOGRAPHY
Guido Molinari, who was born in Montreal in 1933 and educated at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal and influenced by the advances made by Paul-Émile Borduas in the realm of abstraction, sought an alternative to the “automatist credo”. Following on the heels of the first Plasticiens, who focused on a rational geometric approach of abstraction, Molinari went further, seeking a more radical purification of the elements of art and a hard-edge form of expression. Inspired in the area by the achievements of European artists such as Piet Mondrian, Kasimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky and aware of the innovations of American artist Barnett Newman, Molinari sought to purge his art of all figuration, as he sais in 1955, “to destroy volume by using the plane”. He died in 2004 in Montreal.
SUBJECT
In the 60s, we are confronted with a large work where a dynamic series of vertical coloured stripes vibrate one against the other, holding tight to the flatness of the canvas, so there is no illusion of volume or depth nor is there a traditional figure-ground relationship.
TECHNIQUES
In a 1977 interview, Guido Molinari said, “I’m trying to communicate the power, the potential of colour, of colour sequence, of colour energy and specifically the possibility of the viewer to become aware that he is the operator”.
Source: Anne Newlands, Canadian art form its beginnings to 2000, Firefly book, 2000
