Arnaldo Pomodoro

Private Collection
Venice Design Art Gallery, Venice
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1999

Castello di Malcesine, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Arnaldo Pomodoro, July - August 1987, cat. no. 17, illustrated

Flaminio Gualdoni, Arnaldo Pomodoro. Catalogo Ragionato della Scultura, Tomo II, no. 282, p. 474, illustrated

This work appears is in very good condition overall. There are scattered areas of oxidation are and minute spot pitting to There are scattered dust accretions and scattered surface abrasions.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Throughout his mature career, Arnaldo Pomodoro has focused on a core aesthetic based on primary geometric forms. The ancient concern of employed geometry was first rationalized by Euclid whose axioms on the subject predate the rudimentary concept of Jesus Christ by three centuries. Althought geometry was at the helm, it was the work of Constantine Brancusi who would inspire the artist's convergence of form with reflective mirror-like surfaces. Pomodoro's sculptures are inherently architectural. His sculptures create an authentic inhabitable and plastic disposition of mass from an encounter between internal and external spatiality. Unlike Brancusi however, Pomodoro attempts to transform the utopian industrial age anonymity of the constructivist monument into an essentially intimate and reflective experience.

 

In the present work, the perfection of the form chosen, as in baroque play of special contradictions, does not correspond to the treatment of the interior. The seemingly surgical accuracy of the polished surface is contradicted by deliberate ruptures and gashes that radically visually compromise the pristine surface, creating a sense of tension. Pomodoro himself has noted "Looking at my surface is a complex and changeable experience...the impressions that I bore, irregular or densely packed... the wedges, the wires, the rips...recall the ancient civilizations." But it's precisely the presence of these modular elements that gives all his works that homogenous and immediately recognizable character."