Torsione cubica

Cerda, Antonino

1980 - 1980 - XX

4168

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 26; Larghezza: 14.5; Profondità: 14.5

marmo scolpito

Antonino Cerda, who moved to Genoa as a child, after graduating from high school as an artist in 1973, he was appointed as a teacher of plastic arts at the Liceo Barabino in Genoa in 1977. He continued his artistic research in the studio of the Genoese sculptor Michelangelo Barbieri Viale and at the same time took part in sculpture exhibitions and competitions in Italy and abroad. Torsione cubica alludes to the possible torsion, like a graphic sign, of a hard and immovable material such as marble. Form isolated from context, says Cerda, in its mute perfection becomes expressive language. In this phase of research, I do not remove matter from the block, I do the opposite, I build from the void tensions and contractions, suggestions that, freely but strictly guided, become sculpture.

Spazio 15B

Bozzola, Angelo

1968 - 1968 - XX

3266

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 100; Larghezza: 200; Profondità: 10

acciaio inox

Angelo Bozzola was a great experimenter of innovative techniques and materials applied not only to the field of painting and sculpture but also to industrial design, with an approach that was always analytical and process-oriented, and an anticipator of many aesthetic issues such as the contamination of languages and the concept of usability of the work. In the work ‘Spazio 15B grande scultura’ Bozzola inserts a personal and identifying form of his research that he calls ‘Monoforma trapezio ovoidale’. On the sheet metal by means of an oxyhydrogen flame the artist draws his shape continuously for dozens of examples, obtaining a contrast between the smooth and cold parts of the sheet metal and the rough and sharp parts determined by the passage of the flame. The result is characterised by modular elements that are duplicated and concatenated according to precise logical-mathematical schemes, with results of great elegance and compositional balance.

Implosion

Giovanni, Rizzoli 2005

Rizzoli, Giovanni

2004 - 2004 - XX

3194

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 49; Larghezza: 29; Profondità: 16

fusione a cera persa in acciaio

In 1977 the artist moved to Canada. In 1980 he attended the École Nouvelle de Chailly in Lausanne, Switzerland and later the Saint Stephen's School in Rome where he obtained the International Baccalaureate. In 1988, he took a course in traditional Japanese painting in New York. In the same years he took part in many group and solo exhibitions. Implosion is a cast steel sculpture made with the lost wax technique and alludes in its almost unrecognisable face represented the possible implosion of forms. The sculpture's aesthetic and tactile result reflects the artist's research, which proceeds through contaminations of techniques and materials, proposing a reflection on the history of art understood as a process of achieving an aesthetic and emotional result. Says Rizzoli -My proceeding is more out of amazement than design, but it is also a need for a dialogue with history, the spirit of the times and the possible ways of art-.

Spoleto

Ilva 2000

Lorenzetti, Carlo

1962 - 1962 - XX

2437

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 112; Larghezza: 75; Profondità: 43

ferro saldato

Carlo Lorenzetti, international sculptor and artist Teacher at the French Academy in Rome, he is known for his metallic, embossed iron and brass sculptures. In 1962, historian and critic Giovanni Carandente invited him to the open-air exhibition Sculptures in the City in Spoleto. Lorenzetti favoured the use of metal plates on which he experimented with weights and balances: his poetics recall the mobile sculptures of the well-known American artist Alexander Calder. The work ‘Spoleto’ follows this mode of expression by proposing a contrast between the thickness of the iron plates that make up the vertical part of the sculpture and their ability to generate a stable balance on a relatively small wooden base. Even the bending of the metal seems to follow rules referring to softer and more flexible materials in a search for dynamism without the component of movement.

Sipario tagliafuoco

Ceccarelli, Giovanni

1988 - 1990 - XX

2421

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 57; Larghezza: 91

colore e lamine metalliche su compensato

Nerone Ceccarelli, art name Giovanni Ceccarelli, was an Italian sculptor. He worked under the banner of research characterised by the integration of art and architecture, while elaborating sculptures linked to a strict geometric abstractionism. Between 1989 and 1990, Nerone took part in the competition for the firebreak curtain at the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa. He presented ‘Solo con un disco...’, ‘Bravo Nicolò!’ and ‘Trillo di Dio’. Ceccarelli was not the winner of the competition but, in 1990, he won a new competition with the work ‘Viva Schöenberg’. It is a sculptural surface of monumental dimensions, consisting of 125 panels for a total of 200 m², of rigorous geometric abstractionism on which Ceccarelli worked for months. One of the preparatory sketches is now on display in the Villa Croce collection, entitled ‘Sipario Tagliafuoco’. The geometric elements, made of different metals, are assembled together in a mixture of sculpture and painting.

Eros

Sandro Cherchi 1992

Cherchi, Sandro

1965 - 1965 - XX

939

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 70; Larghezza: 10; Profondità: 20

bronzo

After his studies in Genoa, the artist moved first to Milan and then to Turin, where in 1948 he became professor of sculpture at the Accademia Albertina in Turin and participated in the Venice Biennale for the first time. The work (a bronze casting) proposes a technique that will characterise Cherchi's work and research from the 1940s onwards. The gestures and traces left on the bronze, which apparently appear uncontrolled, reveal on closer inspection recognisable elements and an allusion to the human condition that is so precise and mutable at the same time. The bronze is modelled as a soft material in order to reproduce in its solidity, at the end of the casting process, a result of maximum expressiveness and evocative effectiveness. It should be noted how in relation to the other work exhibited ("Testa" of 1946) a stylistic evolution in the direction of a much more abstract sculpture can be perceived.

Testa

Sandro Cherchi 1992

Cherchi, Sandro

1946 - 1946 - XX

909

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 25; Larghezza: 25; Profondità: 20

bronzo

After his studies in Genoa, the artist moved first to Milan and then to Turin, where in 1948 he became professor of sculpture at the Accademia Albertina in Turin and participated in the Venice Biennale for the first time. The work ‘Testa’ (Head) of 1946 proposes in the facial features a desire for representation that is not grotesque or gratuitously caricatured. On the contrary, the deformity of the figure corresponds in the surface finish to what the classical sculptor tends to correct, while in Cherchi's choice it is left unaltered in a search for gestural elements, seemingly random, that allude to the relationship, at once aggressive and liberating, of the artist's manipulation of the material.

Votive cabinet with the deities Daikokuten, Bishamonten and Kisshōten - Benzaiten inside

ambito giapponese

cabinet

Kangiten

ambito giapponese

statue

Tanjō no Shaka Butsu, the newborn Śākyamuni historical Buddha

ambito giapponese

- XVII-XVIII

B-0333

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 18.7

Bronzo colato su modello in cera, patinato bruno cupo

n April 8 Japan celebrates the "Hana matsuri", the festival of flowers", a ritual ceremony that commemorates the birth of the historical Buddha (Śākyamuni), a ceremony also known as "Kanbutsu-e". In Buddhist temples, a small altar decorated with flowers is set up, inside which is placed a small statuette called "tanjōbutsu" or "tanjō Shaka", which depicts the newborn Buddha. The figure is not made with the features of a child but already portrays an individual with an adult physique characterized by "Buddhist elements" such as ears with long lobes. The statues depict Śākyamuni just after his birth, who points to the sky with his right hand and to the earth/ground with his left, thus defining his dominance over the two levels of the Cosmos. During the celebration, the faithful adorn the altar with flowers and bathe, in turn, the small statue with "amacha", a sweet hydrangea tea; a clear reference to the legendary scented nectar with which the two dragon kings bathed the little Śākyamuni after his birth. This statuette certainly comes from a temple context, where it was commonly used for the Kanbutsu-e ritual; observing it carefully, in fact, it is visible on the surface, a thin layer of patina, the result of the continuous spraying of hydrangea tea with which the rite is carried out; it is provided with the pedestal with which it was placed inside the irrigation bowl, the kanbutsu-ban, and it is no coincidence that the pedestal is decorated in the shape of a lotus flower, a floral symbol par excellence of Buddhism.