Giorgio Griffa guides us with clear, simple words through his painting, providing insights into the motivations and thought behind the thirteen cycles cited in the title of this book. Cycles that, as Griffa himself explains, are not strict classifications nor progressive stages in an evolutionary process, but rather parallel paths that can sometimes cross, overlap, or go their separate ways.
As the blurb reads on the back cover, “It seems that among the historic avant-garde movements, and even before them, the various cycles of a work were often developments on each other. A sort of progression exemplified perfectly by Mondrian’s tree.
In my case, there is nothing of the kind. There is no progression. A cycle follows another not because the previous one was concluded and the new one starts from those conclusions. They are simple, natural variations among various options. They are different pathways through the same dark forest.”
