Sculpture: Dissatisfied Aristotle

In Italian, his name means “golden apple,”or more commonly, “tomato.” But his cognomen, insists ArnaldoPomodoro, has nothing to do with the fact that he has grown famoussculpting massive spheres cast in polished bronze (opposite). Rather,he is a kind of dissatisfied Aristotelian, seeking the true nature ofform inside matter. “For me,” he says, “the sphere is a perfect, almostmagical form. Then you try to break the surface, go inside and givelife to the form.”

Pomodoro, 39, started out making modern jewelry. Slowly his self-taughtattempts at sculpture drew recognition, until prizes at the 1963 SāoPaulo and 1964 Venice biennials won his works places in London’s Tateand New York’s Museum of Modern Art. For Pomodoro, the starting pointis always solid geometry; the tension begins as he scars and gouges outhis spheres, cylinders, cubes and disks. “The contrast between thepolished and torn surfaces is precisely the difficulty of theindividual to adapt to a new world,” he feels. What he finds withinevokes a strange and curious crystalline imagery drawn from themachine. His slabs look like the innards of computers, his spheres likeball-shaped printing heads for IBM typewriters. He did a facade for aCologne school that is 78 ft. high by 27 ft. wide and entitled GrandHomage to Technological Civilization. He calls other slabs Radarsbecause they strike him as “capturing feelings.” Rather than stand atodds with the machine, Pomodoro searches for harmony betweentechnological society and man. His sculpture probes for a tactilesolution that will satisfy both the intellect and the emotions.