Giorgio Griffa—Empatia

Empatia [Empathy], a solo exhibition curated by Yann Chateigné Tytelman for the Xavier Hufkens Gallery/Espace Rivoli in Brussels, offers a profound exploration of the work of Giorgio Griffa by connecting his recent works (2023/2024) from the Disorder cycle—on show here for the first time—with canvases from the 1960s/1970s, belonging to the cycle Primary Signs.

As the curator writes, “Griffa’s pictorial language, seemingly rational, materialistic, and deconstructive, has occasionally led critics to associate his work with various conceptual and critical movements of the 1970s—such as Arte Povera, Minimalism, and Supports/Surfaces. Later, in the 2000s, emphasis was placed on a poetics of emptiness, an aesthetics of withdrawal. The exhibition aims to reveal the extent to which the artist’s world, rooted in observation of nature, relies on a ritual of patience, nearly scientific precision, and a vital movement inherent within the work. This connection possibly traces back to the origins of his practice: the representation of nature, the movements of air and light, and the lines and marks inscribed in the landscape.”

The exhibition highlights the ever-changing and vital equilibrium found in Griffa’s work between order and disorder, symbol of a complex and changing reality, showing how empathy is the key concept in the relationship between artist, canvas, and observer. Empatia is thus a lens through which to grasp the profound depth of his painting and it capacity to evolve, connecting past and present, sign and space.