Art as Jewelry as Art
Art as Jewelry as Art
Arnaldo Pomodoro
'Untitled' Sterling Pendant Necklace
Lot Closed
October 6, 04:42 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Arnaldo Pomodoro
b. 1926
'Untitled' Sterling Pendant Necklace
1975, signed and dated Arnaldo Pomodoro 75 (on the vertical bar in the center of the pendant), edition 6/50, maker's mark GM AP 5 on top, stamped 925
sterling silver pendant decorated on both sides with textured surfaces in high relief formed from cuttlefish-bone lost-wax
castings, with a long silver bar chain; from edition of 50 by GEM Montebello and artist’s proofs; recorded in the Archivio Arnaldo
Pomodoro, Milan, under no. M/75/4
Pendant: 2¼ by 2⅝ in.; 5.7 by 6.7 cm.
Chain: 19¾ in.; 50 cm.
Private Collection, United States
Sotheby’s, Contemporary Art: New York, Monday, February 26, 2007, Sotheby’s, New York, 2007, n. 156, ill. p. 168
Diana Küppers, Künstlerschmuck = objets d’art, Hirmer, Munich, 2009, p. 128
Paola Stroppiana, Scultura Aurea, Gioielli d’Artista per un nuovo Rinascimento, Gli Ori, Pistoia, 2019, p. 149
Arnaldo Pomodoro Catalogue Raisonnè online, Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milano (https://www.arnaldopomodoro.it/catalogue_raisonne/artworks/)
Arnaldo Pomodoro’s 1975 ‘Untitled’ Sterling Pendant Necklace, an example of which is in the public collection of the Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione dell’Università di Parma, is an intriguing geometric version of the Pomodoro’s cuttlefish-bone jewelry made with GEM Montebello. The lost-wax casting process allowed the artist to arrange the bones into lines, concretizing natural forms (animal bones) into something that looks rather similar to a computer’s motherboard, a wholly man-made and extremely modern object. The satisfying weight of the silver medallion is contrasted with the fine detail atop its surface, which feels to the fingers exactly like the bones of an ancient animal and weds old and new in his signature style of abstraction.