works by Arnaldo Pomodoro - Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro

Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro
The Collection – Arnaldo Pomodoro
Critical path
Born with a group of 28 fundamental works, donated by Arnaldo Pomodoro
at the time of establishment of the Fondazione in 1995, the Collection was
expanded in April 2012 of a further donation of a significant group of
sculptures, designs, drawings.
Now includes over 50 works from 1955 to present, selected by the sculptor
himself to document the milestones of his artistic research.
The reliefs executed in the 1950s (Il giardino nero, 1956; Situazione
vegetale n. 4,1957; Orizzonte 1957, n. 5; Tavola dei segni 1957, n. 2;
Tavola dell'agrimensore 1958, n. 1) indicate that the artist transcended the
prevailing culture of Art Informel and passed on to the concept of a sign that
is ambiguous yet abounding with meaning.
The presentation of some of the most significant versions of Colonna del
viaggiatore (La colonna del viaggiatore 1960, n. 1 and La colonna del
viaggiatore 1965/66, n. 2) documents Pomodoro's recovery of the notion of
the symbolic structure, which leads both sculpture and architecture back to
a common root.
The artist's meditation on primary geometric models and his elaboration of
Euclidean solids, which characterize his oeuvre and earned him
international fame, are expressed in basic bronzes such as Il cubo 19611962, La ruota, 1961 and Sfera n. 1, which was exhibited for the first time at
the 1963 Biennial of São Paulo, Brazil and is the artist's proof of the work
that is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New
York.
The Fondazione also has, in permanent storage, large-size sculptures
executed in the 1970s and 1980s such as The Pietrarubbia Group, one of
Pomodoro's finest works, in which he fully expresses his architectural and
environmental inclination and aptitude, and Colpo d'ala, a tribute to the
dynamism of Boccioni. Then there are the artist's studies and proofs of
works on display in public spaces in Europe, the United States, Japan and
Australia: noteworthy among these are the four Forme del mito - Il Potere,
L'Ambizione, La Macchina and La Profezia, created for Emilio Isgrò's
production of Aeschylus's Oresteia cycle staged in Gibellina and then
installed on a permanent basis in Brisbane in 1988.
The Collection also boasts the memorable Progetto per il nuovo cimitero di
Urbino, 1973, which triggered one of the most heated debates in the postwar period regarding art created for public spaces.