Grattage
{{Short description|Surrealist painting technique}}
{{other uses}}
File:Apotheosis, grattage su tela, opera dell'artista Giovanni Guida.jpg
Grattage (literally "scratching", "scraping") is a technique in surrealist painting which consists of "scratching" fresh paint with a sharp blade.{{cite web |title=Grattage – Art Term |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/g/grattage |website=Tate |accessdate=23 May 2020}}M. A. Caws, Mary Ann Caws, Surrealism, Phaidon Press, 2004
In this technique, one typically attempts to scratch and remove the chromatic pigment spread on a prepared support (the canvas or other material)Carlo Pirovano, La Pittura in Italia: Il Novecento, Volumi 1–2, Electa, 1992 in order to move the surface and make it dynamic.Marina Pugliese, Tecnica mista. Com'è fatta l'arte del '900, Bruno Mondadori, 2012 Incorporate the technique of grattage in the painting in order to create a strong sense of texture or pattern on the surface of the picture plane.Jean Robertson, Craig McDaniel, Painting as a Language: Material, Technique, Form, Content, Harcourt College Publishers, 2000
This technique was used by Max Ernst,M. E. Warlick, Max Ernst and Alchemy: A Magician in Search of Myth, University of Texas Press, 2013Peter Stockwell, The Language of Surrealism, Macmillan International Higher Education, 2016 Joan Miró,Giulio Carlo Argan, Studi sul surrealismo, Volume 1, Officina, 1977 and later by informal artists.
Technique and materials
In this pictorial technique, in addition to the use of brushes and spatulas, the artist experiments with common tools and everyday objects, such as sponges, steel brushes, stilettos, scalpels, tips, razor blades, and small blocks of metal.
In grattage various common tools scrape wet paint to simulate natural patterns or to create new ones.Marie MacDonnell Roberts, The artist's design: probing the hidden order, Fradema Press, 1993 The scratches created bring out the colors of the underlying pictorial layers and create chromatic contrasts. In the grattages, the scraping of the surface layers of paint over an assortment of objects serves to stimulate the mind to engage itself in the automatic process of “discovering” images lying hidden within its innermost recesses.Haim Finkelstein, The Screen in Surrealist Art and Thought, Routledge, 2017
Artists
Max Ernst rediscovered the frottage technique (based on the rubbing principle); in 1927 he transposed this drawing technique - generally applied to paper - to oil painting, thus creating the grattage process.Max Ernst, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005 Grattage allowed Max Ernst to free the creative forces full of suggestions and evocations, less theoretical and more unconscious and spontaneous.Uwe M. METKEN, Max Ernst, Karin von Maur, Sigrid Metken, Uwe M. Schneede, Tate Gallery, Sarah Wilson, Max Ernst: A Retrospective, Prestel, 1991
This technique was refined by the artist Hans Hartung;Hans Hartung, Domenico D'Oora, Maurizio Medaglia, Vittorio Raschetti, Hans Hartung, Silvia, 2006 through this process he reaches the sublimation of his typical pictorial gestures, creating a new sign alphabet relying on pointed tools, suitably modified brushes, and rollers.Hans Hartung, Michel Enrici, Fondation Maeght, Hans Hartung: le geste et la méthode, Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, 2008
In figurative monochrome neo-grattage[http://www.matway.dk Neograttage] MatWay (Matvey Slavin) - Artist's website. Retrieved December 18, 2024 MatWay further develops the technique in so-called Engraved Paintings.[https://kunstavisen.dk/article/maerk-magtens-spil/ Maerk magtens spil - Matvey Slavin] Engraved Paintings. Article by Inge Schjødt. Retrieved October 7, 2022