Franco Grignani retrospective at m.a.x. Chiasso explores his multisensory graphic design

The Museo m.a.x. in Chiasso, Switzerland, presents "Franco Grignani (1908-1999). Polisensorialità fra arte, grafica e fotografia," a retrospective twenty years after the artist's death. Curated by Mario Piazza and Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini, the exhibition features 300 works including photographs (twenty from the Lanfranco Colombo Fund at MUFOCO), paintings, sculptures, serigraphs donated by heirs, magazines, logos, and design objects. Grignani, who studied mathematics in Pavia and architecture in Turin, was a leading figure in 20th-century graphic design, creating for Fiat, Pirelli, Pura Lana Vergine, Zegna, Dompè, Breda, Arnoldo Mondadori, and art institutions. He was invited by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti to the Grande Mostra Nazionale Futurista in Rome and later befriended Antonio Boggeri in Milan. His work, described as "polysensorial," blended rationality and emotion, influenced by Second Futurism, European Concretism, Max Bill, and optical/kinetic artists like Vasarely and Gruppo T. The catalogue includes contributions from Giovanni Anceschi and Bruno Monguzzi, who knew Grignani personally. His experimental output reached 14,000 works, often assisted by his wife Jeanne Michot. The exhibition runs at m.a.x. Chiasso.