The mesmerizing work of Franco Grignani

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Last Updated on 2022/01/11

The Art of Franco Grignani

Franco Grignani (Pieve Porto Morone, 4 February 1908 – Milan, 20 February 1999) was an Italian graphic artist and artist.

He founded Studio Grignani in the 1930s and he experimented in the fields of photography and photomontage.

Franco Grignani
Franco Grignani

Grignani’s most well-known work is the Woolmark logo, applied to more than five billion products worldwide.

In the early thirties, he was interested in the second phase of Futurism, then he approached geometric abstraction and constructivism.

During the war, he was asked to organize an aircraft recognition course. Without experience and with few tools available he redesigned and retraced the silhouettes of the enemy planes from the images found in the German propaganda magazine “Signal”.

pagina-pubblicitaria-Alfieri-e-Lacroix-Tipolitozincografia-in-Milano,-IT,-1960
Franco Grignani. Alfieri e Lacroix Tipolitozincografia in Milano, IT, 1960

Recalling those moments he later said: “These are the first thoughts on the problems of vision and the interdependence between eye and mind” this experience channeled its future activity towards visual experimental analysis.

He developed a keen interest in the optical visual field, conducting analytical research through not only pictorial but also photographic means.

Franco Grignani. Alfieri e Lacroix
Tipolitozincografia in Milano, IT, 1969

Soon his developments are directed towards the study of perceptive procedures experimenting with photograms, photomontages, overlays, and graphics elaborations, based on perceptive theories, in particular on the Psychology of form.

Subsequently, he entered a long period of experimentation on “virtual forms” intervening directly on the image distorting its shape in a plastic way (rotations, twists, splits, deformations) or in a more dynamic way (progressions, accelerations, direction exchange, and perspective reversals); bringing out, through changes and artificial solicitations, suggestions and natural emotions from the mind of the observer.

Franco Grignani, “Spazio in permutazione continua”, 1977
Franco Grignani, “Spazio in permutazione continua”, 1977
Franco Grignani, “Interlinea 18A”, 1963
Franco Grignani, “Interlinea 18A”, 1963
Franco Grignani, “Induzioni abbinate”, 1966
Franco Grignani, “Induzioni abbinate”, 1966
franco-grignani
franco-grignani
franco-grignani
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Franco Grignani, Dissociazione da bordo, 1970, acrilico, 70 x 70 cm
Franco Grignani, Dissociazione da bordo, 1970,
acrilico, 70 x 70 cm
Fitti-rilievi-unidirezionali_Franco Grignani
Franco Grignani, “Fitti rilievi unidirezionali”, 1989
Combinatoria-di-strutture-ondulate-interferenti_Franco Grignai
Franco Grignani, “Combinatoria di strutture ondulate interferenti”, 1956
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