Arnaldo Pomodoro: The possible movement. |- Dangira

Arnaldo Pomodoro: The possible movement.

It is my great pleasure to once again invite all of you to the latest Cortesi Gallery exhibition: Arnaldo Pomodoro: the possible movement.

Curated by Alberto Salvadori in collaboration with the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro the exhibition aims to explore the career of one of the most accomplished Italian sculptors. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore the beginnings and the most important stages of the artist’s career, for the first time presenting a group of previously unseen works starting from the second half of the 1950s.

Since the very beginnings of his career, Arnaldo Pomodoro has always been present at the development of the artistic research and movements of his own time, perfectly capturing its Zeitgeist. Those years were in fact characterised by his enthusiastic, intense, and prolific stamina, by meetings, travels and acts of cooperation. His first trip to the United States in 1959 proved to be a fundamental moment during which Pomodoro realised that innovation was permeating the artistic scene of the West Coast, with reference to Los Angeles and San Francisco, which a few years later would become the central pole of his activities.

The result of this insight can be clearly seen in the wall-mounted works full of internal energy – which rework languages close to him, such as the informal or the intrinsic gesture in Burri’s matterism – also through the use of and experimentation with materials that are heterodox to the tradition.

While his brass spheres are known around the world, the exhibition offers the possibility of understanding how Pomodoro is able to find himself at ease in any medium. From the two-dimensionality of his wall-mounted works to the three-dimensionality of Colonne del viaggiatore, including jewellery and ornaments, to landscaping interventions such as the Progetto per il nuovo cimitero di Urbino.

The exhibition itinerary also shines a light on the sculptor’s friendships and collaborations with poets such as Paolo Volponi, Attilio Bertolucci and Emilio Villa, thanks to extraordinary artist books that show how much narration and writing have always been at the heart of his research and his work. Also presented in the exhibition are two experimental films that came about from the artist’s urgent desire to express his thought and artistic work: Arnaldo Pomodoro makes a sphere (1968) made at Stanford by filmmaker Joe Green, and Shaping negation (1970) realised in collaboration with Francesco Leonetti and Ugo Mulas.