Tapestries are one of the oldest forms of applied art, so precious and so laborious in manufacturing that today they have practically disappeared. Presiding over the excellence of Made in Italy in this niche sector is Arazzeria Scassa of Asti, which stands out in Europe for its production of contemporary art tapestries on seventeenth-century high-heddle looms, made with an exclusive technique that allows a perfect rendering of the nuances and complexity of contemporary expression.
Soft, vibrant colors, flowing and original shades, generated by the union of 5 different threads of precious Piedmontese twisted wool and threads of precious metals, according to an exclusive technique invented by Scassa in 1957, are the distinctive feature of the production of the Arazzeria Astigiana, whose creations are now exhibited all over the world, in museums and private collections.
At 6pm on Thursday 16 May, in Asti, in the ancient Certosa di Valmanera, the Scassa collection will be enriched with a new work of art, following the ceremony of the lowering of a tapestry (134×169 cm) from the seventeenth-century frame, taken from a painting by Ezio Gribaudo belonging to the “New York Diaries” series.
The spotlight of collecting and the art world will focus on the ancient Certosa di Valmanera, home of Arazzeria Scassa, where some of the most important figures in the world of art and culture will converge.
Conference speakers “High heddle tapestries today. Perspectives and challenges of contemporary art” they will, in fact, be Paola Gribaudo, president of the Gribaudo Archive of Turin and daughter of the artist, the art historian Silvana Cincotti and Massimo Bilotta, managing director of Arazzeria Scassa. The philosopher, curator and art critic Roberto Mastroianni will moderate the meeting.
Paola Gribaudo remembers: «The experience of the New York trip greatly marked my father’s production: it represented a turning point. This was noted by illustrious critics, such as Andreina Griseri and Luigi Carluccio, who, in the exhibition catalogue Ezio Gribaudo, held in Rome, in the Pogliani Gallery in 1965, he wrote: “I have always recognised, in Gribaudo’s works, the reverberation of a natural curiosity, ready to capture the elements of the news, as well as those of culture. The reverberation of the moments in which, for example, setting foot in Manhattan for the first time, entering the perspectives of the Rockefeller Center, constitute emotional facts much more vivid than many beloved aesthetic theories, and many programs of pictorial action” . I am very happy”, continues the president of the Gribaudo Archive, “to participate in an event linked to tapestries, an art form that my father, Ezio Gribaudo, particularly appreciated, and to a painting inspired by a central period in his production ».
Massimo Bilotta, CEO of Arazzeria Scassa, underlines: «The conference will be an opportunity to discover the poetics of Ezio Gribaudo, one of the most acclaimed artists and art publishers of the twentieth century, who passed away in 2022 –– whose works are preserved in numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Museum of Imagination in Hudson (New York), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and Ca’ Pesaro in Venice, the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro – but also to highlight the strong partnership between the artist and Ugo Scassa, founder of the Arazzeria, which led to the creation of numerous and beautiful tapestries taken from the works of the Turin artist”.
Ezio Gribaudo, from Turin, born in 1929, like the tapestry maker Ugo Scassa, has marked the history of twentieth-century art both as an artist capable of ranging between graphics, painting and sculpture, exploring different media, and as an art publisher collaborating with Chagall , de Chirico, Fontana, Peggy Guggenheim, Miró, Moore, and as a promoter of major cultural events, especially in the exhibition sector, such as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection exhibition at the Gam in Turin.
Finally, the conference will also be an opportunity to delve deeper into the opportunities that contemporary tapestries represent for artists, the technical challenges of their creation and the interest of collectors in this precious form of applied art, of which the Arazzeria Scassa of Asti represents the latest and most dynamic expression at European level.
Participation in the conference will be free.
