Arnaldo Pomodoro "Sfera con sfera"

Sfera con sfera - a monumental fibreglass sphere by Arnaldo Pomodoro, one of the most important contemporary artists, is on display at the Royal Łazienki Museum. The sculpture can be seen in the Modernist Garden by the New Orangery.

The exhibition at the Royal Łazienki Museum is an opportunity to explore the work of the Italian sculptor, one of the few artists whose works are exhibited in the Vatican.

Arnaldo Pomodoro's Style

From the 1950s onward, his projects include convex reliefs, characterised by a distinctive "writing" form. This form, previously unknown in sculpture, drew the attention of leading Italian art critics. In the early 1960s the artist began creating three-dimensional compositions, exploring the geometry of solids. By "eating away" at their surfaces and causing corrosion, cracks and perforations, he destroyed their perfect structures, revealing their imperfections.

In 1966 he was commissioned to create a sphere three and a half metres in diameter for the Expo in Montreal. It was one of many works of his shown in urban spaces around the world, including in Milan, Copenhagen, Brisbane, Los Angeles, Darmstadt, Caracas, Cologne and Paris. Placed in front of the Farnesina in Rome, it symbolises Pomodoro's turn towards monumental sculpture.

Sfera con sfera

Among the most important works of the Italian artist are creative inventions on the theme of the "sphere": Sfera n. 1, 1963, held at MoMA in New York; Sfera con sfera, 1979-80 (the fibreglass version is exhibited at the Royal Łazienki Museum) at the Hakone Open Air Museum in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan; Sfera con sfera, 1982-83 (in three versions located respectively at Trinity College Dublin, Tel Aviv University and in Monaco); Sfera con sfera, 1991 (the version standing in front of the Amada Hotel in Tokyo and the "artist's proof" in the square in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York). In 1990 Pomodoro designed a sphere four metres in diameter - Sfera con sfera, which is perfectly integrated into the unique setting of the Cortile della Pigna in the Vatican Museums.

Sfera con sfera reflects the contradictions of today's world with its complex mixture of symbols, which can be read both as organic, and therefore human, and as associated with technology. Because of this complexity, the interior of the sculpture takes the form of gear teeth. In particular, the sphere within which another, developing sphere is located can be interpreted as a metaphor for the promise of a world renewed, with fewer worries and less destruction.

Pomodoro explained the concept of the Sfera con sfera cycle as follows:

• The sphere is a wonderful object, it comes from the world of magic and sorcerers, both the one in bronze and the one filled with water. It is also the mother's womb, I think... It reflects everything around it, creates strange contrasts, transforms the ordinary reflection of the environment. This is precisely the aim of creating each subsequent sculpture, like this one: an attempt to break the perfect form of magic, with the hope of finding within it inner contradictions, mystery and reality.
• This is what drives me to create spheres: breaking these perfect, magical forms in order to reveal their inner unease, mysterious and alive, enormous yet pure; I therefore create tension devoid of harmony, conflict, an incomplete unit with a polished surface.
• In my sculpture, the shape of today's world is contained in the form of the "ideal city", created by the artists of the Italian Renaissance. Ultimately, this is where the hopes and dreams of mine and of many other citizens of this world reside.
• It is precisely the longing for the "ideal city" that manifests itself in the works of the artists of the Italian Renaissance and gnaws at the minds of contemporary artists and scientists.

Arnaldo Pomodoro was born in 1926 in Morciano di Romagna, near Pesaro. He spent his childhood and received his education in the region…