Sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro has died

Arnaldo Pomodoro passed away last night, Sunday 22 June, in Milan on the eve of his 99th birthday, at his home. This was announced by the Foundation that bears his name, directed by Carlotta Montebello. The sculptor, known among other things for his iconic bronze spheres, was in fact born on 23 June 1926 in Montebello di Romagna. "With the passing of Arnaldo Pomodoro, the art world loses one of its most authoritative, lucid and visionary voices," the Foundation's general director recalls.

'"The Maestro leaves an immense legacy, not only for the strength of his work, recognised internationally, but also for the coherence and intensity of his thought, capable of looking to the future with untiring creative energy," writes Carlotta Montebello, who recalls a sentence by Pomodoro. 'I have never believed in foundations that celebrate a single artist as a unicum. The artist is part of a fabric of culture, his active contribution can never fail, and this is why I have conceived my Foundation as an active and living place of cultural elaboration, as well as a centre of documentation of my work, capable of making original proposals and not just passive conservation. But the best is yet to come: this was only a beginning and in my intentions the project - aimed at the young and the future - must take root, make continuity an inescapable element... ", wrote the artist.

"The Foundation, born from this vision and strong in the direction traced out by Arnaldo Pomodoro over thirty years, will continue to operate according to the will of its founder, guaranteeing the conservation and enhancement of his work, committing itself to disseminating its material and immaterial heritage through the realisation of exhibitions events and initiatives in an inventive, almost experimental space of study and confrontation on the themes of art and sculpture, aiming at a deep and global involvement with people and society We will all miss you Arnaldo and we will treasure your teachings,' concludes Director General Carlotta Montebello.

Arnaldo Pomodoro, Giorgio 'Gio' Pomodoro's older brother, also a sculptor, first studied as a surveyor to soon discover his passion for metal and sculpture. A goldsmith at first, it was in the 1950s that he began to create his first large forms after moving to Milan in 1954 when he began to weave his signatures in relief, creating visual situations on the borderline between two- and three-dimensionality. "For me," said the already over-90-year-old artist, "it was a very dense period of intellectual exchange. With Lucio Fontana and others he founded the Continuità group. Today his works are exhibited all over the world. The last major exhibition in 2023 in collaboration with Fendi, at the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, a fashion house that had also chosen one of his most significant environmental works, Ingresso nel labirinto (Entrance into the Labyrinth), for its headquarters in Via Solari in Milan.