Gio Pomodoro was an Italian artist who worked with sculpture, prints and stage decorations. He is known as one of the most leading figures among the 20th-century generation of abstract sculptors.
Background
Gio, or Giorgio Pomodoro was born on November 17, 1930, in Orciano di Pesaro, Italy.
At the age of fifteen, he moved with his family to Pesaro.
Giorgio had a sister and an elder brother, Arnaldo Pomodoro, also an Italian sculptor.
Education
Gio Pomodoro entered the Technical Institute of Pesaro in 1945 and had studied there for six years.
Career
Gio Pomodoro started his career from the one-year military service which he began in 1952. He presented his early artworks in Florence.
Three years later, the artist settled down with his family in Milan where he exhibited along with his elder brother Arnaldo. He received his first popularity and was invited to the Venice Biennale of 1956 where he demonstrated to the public his sculptures dedicated to the American poet Ezra Pound.
The following year, Pomodoro took part in the Nuclear Art Exhibition in Milan. The debut solo show of the artist was organized in the city in 1958 at the Galleria del Naviglio. A year later, he participated at his first Documenta 2 Exhibition in Kassel, Germany and exhibited at the first Biennale of Young Artists in Paris.
While in the city, Gio Pomodoro met such well-known representatives of the avant-garde movement as Gastone Novelli, Giulio Turcato, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana and Achille Perilli. This period, he began to design jewellery. Later, in his artworks appeared such materials like wood, textiles and plaster.
The new decade was rich in events for Pomodoro. First, in 1961 he had two solo exhibitions, one in Paris and the second in Milan. The expositions were followed by his next Venice Biennale a year later, this time with a personal room. He also signed a contract with the Marlborough Gallery in New York City which had lasted till 1967. The public of the United Kingdom had an opportunity to admire Pomodoro’s art in 1964.
From the 1970s, Gio Pomodoro devoted his time to the large-scale, monumental artworks with stone, marble and bronze made in his studio in Versilia. He also received a lot of public commissions.
At the end of this period, he tried his hand as a stage designer. So, Pomodoro produced the decorations for The Power of Fate (La forza del destino) opera by Verdi held at the Verona Arena in 1978. The same year, he took part at his third Venice Biennale.
In a couple of years, he designed the stage for Magic Flute by Mozart demonstrated at the La Fenice Opera House in Venice.
The last Venice Biennale at which the artist presented his artworks was held in 1984. This period, he travelled with his sculptures to Switzerland and Denmark.
During his last artistic period, Pomodoro had many exhibitions around Italy, United States (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the International Sculpture Center) and an exposition in Tel Aviv.
Gio Pomodoro spent his last days at his studio in Milan.