Grippo, Víctor (1936–2002)

Víctor Grippo (b. 10 May 1936), Argentine artist. Born in the town of Junín, in the province of Buenos Aires, Grippo studied chemistry and design at the University of La Plata. In 1971, he became a leading member of a group of thirteen artists (known as Grupo de los Trece). Named Grupo de Cayc (for the Centro de Arte y Comunicación where they met), these painters wanted to generate radical changes in the practice of art through the exploration of the relation of art to science and the use of massive communication techniques and inexpensive materials.

In his installation Analogy 1 (1971), sprouting potatoes were strung together with zinc and copper electrodes and connected with a voltmeter. By means of written descriptions, Grippo drew parallels between the germinating tubers' energetic power and the awakening of human consciousness: the potato, a staple food native to South America, symbolizes the potential of autochthonous resources. Manual labor, in its most rudimentary forms, was the subject of his installation Crafts (1976). From the 1980s his work consisted of assemblages of quasi-geometric forms that resemble spheres, artificer's lead pencils, and crusets. Throughout his life, his work was shown in international venues such as the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Grippo died in Buenos Aires in February 2002. His work was included in Documenta 11 (2002) in Kassel, Germany.

See alsoLa Plata .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jorge Glusberg, Del pop-art a la nueva imagen (1985), pp. 167-176, and Víctor Grippo: Obras de 1965 a 1987 (1988).

Waldo Rasmussen et al., Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century (1993).

Additional Bibliography

Kalinovska, Milena, ed. Beyond Preconceptions: The Sixties Experiment. New York: Independent Curators International, 2000.

Ramírez, Mari Carmen, ed. Cantos paralelos: La parodia plástica en el arte argentina contemporáneo. Austin: Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin; Buenos Aires: Fondo Nacional de las Artes, 1999.

Zegher, M. Catherine de, and Elizabeth A. Macgregor, eds. Victor Grippo. Birmingham, U.K.: Ikon Gallery, 1995.

                                          Marta Garsd