Rotating Sphere (Primary Title)

Arnaldo Pomodoro, Italian, born 1926 (Artist)

1968–69
Italian
Bronze
Overall: 75 1/4 in., 3900 lb. (191.14 cm, 1769 kg)
75.8
Not on view

Arnaldo Pomodoro cites painting—especially the slashed canvases of fellow Italian Luciano Fontana and the dynamic energy of Jackson Pollock’s painted surfaces—as a major influence on his three-dimensional pieces. The polished geometric forms of early-20th-century sculptor Consantin Brancusi also inspired Pomodoro’s work, but he combined Brancusi’s perfection with deliberate flaws and rough surfaces that suggest the passage of time.

In Rotating Sphere, dark voids gouged into the highly polished form address relationships between past and present, nature and technology. The reflective surface distorts its surroundings, changing continually with light and movement. Violent ruptures of the perfect surface introduce tensions that Pomodoro likens to the anxieties of contemporary life but that also suggest futuristic landscapes.

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd U. Noland, Jr.
(Marlborough Gallery, New York); Purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd U. Noland, Newport News, Virginia; Gift to Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), Richmond, Virginia in March of 1975.
© Arnaldo Pomodoro

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