Giorgio Upiglio

Giorgio Upiglio | Grafica Uno

In 1987, Giorgio Upiglio di Grafica Uno printed a limited edition Art Book, of Libro de payasos y bufones in Milan. The work featured 15 poems by Giannina Braschi and 5 original color aquatints by Rita Gallé (cm 25×17; 25×35). First edition of 125 copies numbered and signed by the authors.

Giorgio Upiglio (1932–2013) was a renowned Italian master printer, engraver, and publisher of contemporary art prints and artist’s books. He was a pivotal figure in the post-war European art scene, known for his technical expertise and his significant collaborations with avant-garde artists of the modern and contemporary period.

Giannina Braschi
Giorgio de Chirico
Sandro Chia
Francesco Clemente
Enzo Cucchi
Marcel Duchamp
Lucio Fontana
Gunter Grass
Masuo Ikeda
Asger Jorn
Wifredo Lam
Mimmo Paladino
Graham Sutherland
Joe Tilson

Fondazione Cologni
dei Mestieri d’Arte ETS
Via Lovanio, 5

20121 Milano
Tel: +39 02 49572550

We visited the Upiglio Printworks (Stamperia Upiglio), which is hidden away in a courtyard near the Pirelli skyscraper, in Milan.

“GRAFICA UNO” is the name of the printworks lab, which opened in the early ’60s and for many years has been the reference point for artists that worked in engraving: Morandi, de Chirico, Günter Grass, Lam, Duchamp, Baj, Fontana and many more besides.

When did you embark on this line of work?

I started helping my father and my uncle in 1944, when I was 12. The family printworks was called ATLAS (which, in Italian, stands for Company of Ambrosian Lithographic-Type Arts), but at the times we worked with words and not with images. It was at the start of the ’60s that I decided to make the “big jump” and install presses exclusively for my own use in Via Fara, Milan, and started to work with artist friends that frequented my father’s printworks. I also started investing in small-scale productions which we brought to life in my studio.

So your training also took place in the studio?

Yes, everything I know I learned in the printworks with my father. I tried and tried again until I had mastered the technique completely. At the time there were already schools but I went into the studio, that’s how it started.

Giorgio Upiglio Links

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