Franco Costalonga

FRANCO COSTALONGA

Franco Costalonga was born in Venezia in 1933. He is one of the most important members of the Kinetic Art, still very active nowadays. During his first activity as painter into the Art School of Venice, he was influenced by the direction of Remigio Butera. Therefore, his paintings used to have a great research about colour theory. In the second half of 1960s, the artist developed his research on light and the study about borders between art and science, about the incidence of light on materials. In this period, he got closer to the group “Sette-Veneto”, led by Bruno Munari, connected with the "Sincron Operative Center" in Brescia.

The critics determined Costalonga the researcher of visual perception phenomena. The artist studied the light degrees on the chrome kinetic subjects, starting from a modular basic element and then structured. The study of Costalonga is based on the light presences and absences, and wants to capture the shadows and the light on the colour, through the variations of the orientation of the modular support. This is, in fact, one of the Kinetic Art goals, the first Movement to deal with the problem of comparing Art, Science and Technique. Usually, Kinetic Art's artworks represent a two-dimensional and three-dimensional character, that is either a real or a virtual movement. In these artworks central the optical phenomena captured by the viewer, who sometimes is involved directly into the artworks.

Costalonga's artworks are appreciated by designers and decorators, because he manages to cross the border between sculpture and architecture. He participated to many exhibitions, in particular the four editions of the Biennial-Art in Venezia, the XXXV, XLII, XLV, XLVI; The Internationale Kunstmesse Art 5 in Basel on 1974, and the exhibition “Programmed and Kinetic Art” at GAM in Roma, in 2012.