Animated Art

Graziano Vivian is part of the family of animated art that is Nove in central Veneto, on the banks of the Brenta, not far from Bassano del Grappa.
His young years were spent among art, his sister is a fine ceramic artist in this blood line that also includes the next generation in which his nephew is the expressionist ceramic artist, Giuseppe Facchinello. Scholastic life was not part of Graziano’s agenda and even as life took him away from the brush and palette, he was eventually drawn back to paint, not for his livelihood, but for his life.
The expressionsim of Graziano Vivian is not figurative, but purely abstract, art of the spirit, art of the soul, art of the ’anima’, animated art. His brush strokes come from the heart without eye interference. His choice of colour comes from inside, or maybe outside. The panel for his work may be plastic, old wood panels, glass, ceramic tile.
He adds life to these inanimate surfaces with texture maybe plaster, maybe earth or sand – and colour. And what is the absence of colour or the fullness of colour with texture? What is the role of shade? Some works live as you pass them, telling a different story as you come and then go - texture, colour, brilliance and shade.
If one were to approach this animated art with an analytical mind, disappointment would result. In a few of his works displayed throughout the three levels of the family’s house - and his extensive studio, we were struck by an approach to colour that reminded one of Pollack, a more famous artist for whom analysis seems futile (though many try). Yet Graziano is not limited by style.
He paints always with emotional music, sometimes Puccini, as his partner in creation, and as a friend who helps him find the channel for the art to flow through his transparent body. Words that flow in poetry also accompany him along the road.
Graziano does not seek to sell his works and a commission for animated art seems unsuited to his soul. He relates that in every work he leaves a little of his life, so the concept of sale would be prostitution of his being. His house is filled in rooms and stairways on the wall, roofs and some floors with the life of Graziano Vivian. Do not come to stare as at an exhibition, just come and let one or many of his works of animated art talk to your being.
His next challenge is to create art and music together, in the summer evening among the lawns and gardens – maybe there will be room for a poet or two. The challenge – for the souls of the artists to communicate in harmony not cacophony.