GiuseppeChiari
Biography
Giuseppe Chiari (1926 Florence, Italy – 2007 Florence) was an experimental composer and painter based in Italy. Together with artists such as Eugenio Miccini, Ketty La Rocca, Luciano Ori, and Lamberto Pignotti, Chiari was an active member of the Florence-based Gruppo 70. Based on Max Bense’s aesthetic theories, the group proposed forms of expression formulated on new techniques of composition, based on synergy of different linguistic codes of mass communication. Chiari contributed to Fluxus since its early stages, participating in the “Fluxus Internationale Festspiele Neuester Musik” in Wiesbaden in 1962. He began to compose scores of signs and words rather than note sequences. This paradigm shift, combined with his early support of Fluxus, inspired him to translate music into gesture, color, and image in painted and collaged scores in the realm of so-called visual music. In addition to major group exhibitions, such as documenta 6 in Kassel (1972), the Biennale di Venezia (1972, 1976, 1978), and the Biennale of Sydney (1990), Chiari’s works have been exhibited at Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva (1979) and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (1993), among others. Retrospective exhibitions include the Fluxus Biennial project in Rome (2011), and the XVII Quadriennale di Roma (2020). His works can also be found in the Musée Cantonal d’Art de Lugano and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
