Gallizio // Industrial Painting

Like Hans-Peter Zimmer, Gallizio worked in the Expressionist vein. In some pieces, the Situationist theme of inversion manifests itself as the overtaking of background into foreground. Not only is differentiating between figure and surrounding intentionally difficult, the inversion at play renders the task impossible.

Paradoxically, the curving of certain warmer colors across the wide canvas read as paths. Yet the angled rigidity of the geometric figures suggests a certain three-dimensionality onto the scene. These contradictory depictions of space and interaction comprise the genius methodology of Gallizio. 

As mentioned, Gallizio’s figures are well-outlined and highly geometric. In comparison, and to validate the observations of Goodnight Barbara,  the figures in The End of Enchantment can be easily recognized against the painting’s whimsical setting. 

The background’s light source, in conjunction to the orientation of the figures’ discrete shapes, suggests movement in conflicting orientations. No semblances of paths, like those in the previous painting, grant a Surreal interpretation to the Situationist dérive. Yet this could be a particular reinterpretation for the revolutionary ends of the political campaign. 

Another reading of the painting grants greater importance to the darkened region on its left-hand side. In this case, the figures are violently pulled towards the dark mist in that region. This case would dismiss the Surrealist tradition entirely, naming it another aspect of that very spectacle of images inspiring Situationist social critique. 

Gallizio’s pivotal innovation was industrial painting–rolls of portable canvas overlaid in his abstract expressionist style. The irony lies in the mechanization of the process. An artist’s imprint, his expressive internality, becomes a mechanically reproducible procedure. Yet, the continuity between his earlier work and his later industrial paintings suggests greater importance in the formal, not subjective, differences between the two end products. Though abstract expressionism fits this role and, more importantly, disproportionate canvas quite well, the creation of massive rolls of canvas is an inherently subversive act–not as much to do with the expression itself. 

Gallizio challenged the role of the exhibition space, deeming the gallery as untenable as the separation between art and non-art. By extension, he inverted the roles of the artist and collector during the commodification process of his work. He sold off parts of his industrial paintings by the meter, reducing his involvement all the more, by allowing the buyer to choose the dimensions of the purchase. The inversion of these roles comprises a sort of mockery of the art world while including the purchaser in the creative process. The power of industrial painting is in its many revolutionary facets, some of which are outright critical whereas others retain keen evaluation of the urban treatment of art.