One of Giuliano Grittini's main loves in art is for paper. Through this noble and ancient material, the Maestro has managed, in a lifetime of work, to create magnificent works of art known all over the world.
The base, the main material of many of his creations, including the recent and very precious unique works of Craker Art, is almost always paper, but how is a work of art, a serigraph, a print run or a unique piece born? The end customer, the collector who buys these luxurious works, often settles for knowing that the basis of the process of creating a work on Grittini's paper is serigraphic, but is it really so? Not quite, it seems. Let's discover some secrets of how a work of art made on paper is born.
Meanwhile, not many know that there are specific papers, still made today with artisanal methods, or with ancient formulas, which already make these sheets a very valuable material. On the art paper sheet, the work will be painted, or printed, and will later receive applications of gold leaf, silver, or other interventions, such as drawing, applications of materials, varnishes, or whatever the artist's imagination dictates.
These sheets of paper are made specifically for printing and each has its own specific characteristics, of thickness, porosity, gloss, color or opacity, so much so that each type of paper is distinguished by a specific name. Thus, we already have a nomenclature of fascinating names for papers, such as the famous Rosaspina, which can be ivory or white, Italian, produced in Fabriano, the Canson Aquarelle and Canson Baryta, French, to name just a few, and Japanese papers, or Barbizon, Carta Tiepolo and Hahnemühle Bamboo, German, or even Roma Michelangelo, which in color recalls that matte yellow of fresco cartons. Fascinating names, each corresponding to characteristics that the artist knows by heart, of color absorption, fluidity, glossiness and result, and which are already part of an initial choice to achieve the delicacy and beauty of the finished work.
The history of paper belongs to man and to the development of knowledge and the arts. Invented by the Chinese in 105 AD, who jealously guarded its secret, it first spread to Japan (which is why in the Land of the Rising Sun precious papers are still produced today) and then to Arabia. Only around the year eleven hundred did paper begin to spread in Europe, precisely through Italy, thanks to a small town in the Marche, Fabriano, still a world leader in manufacturing, and then a few centuries later it was produced in other places in Europe. Before then, only parchment and papyrus were still used.
Once the main material has been chosen, which type of paper to use, the Maestro must now imprint on the sheet the subject he has decided to represent, one of Giuliano Grittini's famous and iconic POP subjects. This process already represents a very delicate and complicated phase of the creative act. Taking inspiration from the iconography of contemporaneity, from those images that are part of the collective imagination, the artist chooses the theme that his imagination inspires. Once the base of this figure is set, some technical steps fix it on the precious sheet of paper. On this base, then, a whole series of unique processes begin, with brush, pencil or other tools, glues and inserts, support of other sheets or application of materials, such as gold leaf and silver leaf, which ennoble the aesthetic ensemble of the work. In this phase, the artist's sensitivity, his experience, that magical routine that every artist creates in his process, gives birth, moment after moment, intervention after intervention, brushstroke after brushstroke, to the uniqueness of the work that will have its own unique characteristics.
In some cases, such as the unique pieces of Cracker Art, the final work of art will be completely exclusive, particularly elaborate and never the same as another, made in a single specimen. In other cases, it is possible to create exclusive editions, of nine pieces for example, just like in sculpture, to give uniqueness to each sheet. How does it work? Based on the same subject, for example the same face of Marilyn or the same image of Mickey Mouse, each paper will have differences compared to what is applied after printing, such as in particular a gold leaf in one of the nine subjects or a silver leaf in another, a different color of the subject rather than another, and so on. Thus, in this case, even if the subject of the series of nine is similar, it will never be identical to another. This is how the magic is born. Grittini's work is now ready to be enjoyed.
