Arnaldo Pomodoro

Disco in forma di rosa del deserto n.1

Arnaldo Pomodoro

Arnaldo Pomodoro was born in Morciano di Romagna in 1926 and spent his childhood and education in Pesaro. He has lived and worked in Milan since 1954. He is considered one of the greatest contemporary Italian sculptors.

After the informal period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began to reproduce three dimensional shapes with simple solid figures: cubes, pyramids, spheres, columns cylinders in shiny bronze that were torn and corroded, which became a constant in the artist's production.

Arnaldo Pomodoro

Arnaldo Pomodoro was born in Morciano di Romagna in 1926 and spent his childhood and education in Pesaro. He has lived and worked in Milan since 1954. He is considered one of the greatest contemporary Italian sculptors.

After the informal period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began to reproduce three dimensional shapes with simple solid figures: cubes, pyramids, spheres, columns cylinders in shiny bronze that were torn and corroded, which became a constant in the artist's production.

In 1966, he was commissioned to create a three-and-a-half metre diameter sphere for the Montreal Expo, which is now in Rome in front of the Farnesina: this is the transition to large dimensions. This is the first of the artist's numerous works that was eventually placed in public spaces of symbolic importance.

300 x 300 x 150 cm

Date: 1993-1994
Medium: bronze

Introduction

Arnaldo Pomodoro is most famous for his particular bronze spheres that break and open in front of the viewer, revealing the internal mechanism and the contrast between the smoothness of the form and the hidden complexity of the interior. These characteristics are also visible in the work Disco in the form of Desert Rose, which, as the title suggests, reproduces the crystal mineral formations resulting from the sedimentation of the desert sands of Africa through bronze casting.

The work is located at Gallerie d'Italia - Milano.

Arnaldo Pomodoro is most famous for his particular bronze spheres that break and open in front of the viewer, revealing the internal mechanism and the contrast between the smoothness of the form and the hidden complexity of the interior. These characteristics are also visible in the work Disco in the form of Desert Rose, which, as the title suggests, reproduces the crystal mineral formations resulting from the sedimentation of the desert sands of Africa through bronze casting.

The work is located at Gallerie d'Italia - Milano.

The large sculpture, 300 cm in diameter and 150 cm thick, is disc-like.

In profile, its sides appear to be under tension, showing the internal ribbing created by fractures, wounds and excavations; while from the outer sides the solids emerge, consisting of volumes, protrusions, sharp blades, spherical shapes and gears.

The artist used his sign vocabulary to create an articulated composition, full of wedges that refer to ancient writings and that split the material to make it grow.