Farewell to Arnaldo Pomodoro, pioneer of Italian contemporary sculpture

A few hours before his 99th birthday, Arnaldo Pomodoro, a visionary sculptor from Romagna, passed away on Sunday, June 22. A master of bronze, of the study of deconstruction, and of metaphors as a revelation of the human inner self, the artist will go down in history for his works of immense cultural impact, capable of combining a personal vision of society with public engagement. Among his works we remember the Sphere, from 1963, which later became the Large Sphere three years later, when his sculptures took on larger dimensions. His bronze spheres are exhibited in all their complexity in Italy and abroad, from the Farnesina Palace in Rome to Trinity College in Dublin, while among his most important environmental works we remember the Labyrinth of Milan, located beneath the headquarters of Maison Fendi and reopened to the public this March—a true underground journey inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh. «My entrance into the labyrinth is an invitation into the twists and turns of a path, where time is transformed into space and space in turn becomes time,» said Pomodoro himself reflecting on his work. The work of the Romagna-born sculptor is marked by the exploration of interiority, it is personal yet meant for everyone.

Born in 1926 in Morciano di Romagna, he moved to Rimini as a young man to pursue his technical studies as a surveyor, then began a career as a designer in Pesaro. Soon after, however, his interests shifted, and he enrolled at the Art Institute of Pesaro, where the two main pillars of his career fully developed: sculpture and theater. In the 1950s, after losing his father, he moved with his family to Milan, where together with his brother Giò Pomodoro—also a sculptor—he began his first exhibitions, first at the Galleria del Naviglio and then at Il Cavallino Gallery in Venice. Shortly afterward, he traveled alone to the United States for his show "New York from Italy" at the John Bolles Gallery in San Francisco. From there, his career took off, culminating in the International Prize for Sculpture in São Paulo, Brazil, and a solo room at the Venice Biennale in 1964.

In the 1990s, the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation was born, officially recognized by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, with the aim of promoting art—bringing it to life rather than leaving it as mere visual display. “[...] I conceived my Foundation as a living, active place of cultural development, as well as a center for documenting my work, capable of generating original ideas and not merely preserving passively.” In announcing the artist’s death, the Foundation’s current General Director, Carlotta Montebello, stated her intention to carry forward the path charted by Pomodoro over the past thirty years, committing to disseminating his legacy—both material and immaterial—through exhibitions and initiatives in a creative, experimental space for exchange. “Sculpture, when it transforms the place in which it stands, truly becomes a testimony of its time. It imprints itself on a context, enriching it with new layers of memory.”