Italian artist Getulio Alviani dies at 78 in Milan

Getulio Alviani, a major figure in Italian post-war art, died at the Don Gnocchi hospital in Milan after a long illness. Born in Udine in 1939, he was an artist, designer, graphic artist, art theorist, collector, and cultural promoter. Influenced by Josef Albers and Max Bill, he began creating aluminum works in the late 1950s. His first solo exhibition abroad was in 1961 at Mala Galerija in Ljubljana. In 1962 he participated in the group show "Arte Programmata" in Venice, Rome, Düsseldorf, and Leverkusen, and in "Zero" at Galerie Diogenes in Berlin. He exhibited at "Nouvelles Tendences" at the Louvre in Paris and in 1965 at "The Responsive Eye" at MoMA in New York, which acquired his works for its permanent collection. In the mid-1960s he created his first "vibratile texture" room environments, a term coined by Carlo Belloli. These works, made of steel and aluminum, produce shifting light effects. He participated in Documenta 4 in Kassel in 1968, curated by Arnold Bode. He showed at the Venice Biennale three times: 1984, 1986, and 1993. From 1981 to 1985 he directed the Museo d'Arte Moderna in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. He taught painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara from 1976. In his later years he focused on architectural design.