Ettore Colla
Fiore lunare, 1966-1967 circa
reworked recycled iron assembly, h 182 cm
Colla's major work began in 1948, after sculptural attempts of an expressionist and then cubist nature. In 1950 he signed the manifesto of the "Origine" group with Burri and Capogrossi, which placed him among the abstract research based on the values of the sign and matter. His greatest and most personal work began in 1955, when he began to create sculptures by assembling iron elements found and welded together. The recycled materials do not prevent the work from always maintaining a precise constructive order, often aimed at depicting allusive structures, with an archaic and almost totemic flavour, while remaining rigorously abstract. The geometric structure of the sculpture always remains clearly marked, to the point of conforming pure, almost archetypal structures. This is the case of the work in the collection, allusive in the title, Fiore Lunare, but essential and purified of any ornamental or lyrical element in the structure, bold yet simple, a long iron stem that supports an object element vertical, flat and grooved.
from: Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro. La Collezione permanente, exhibition catalogue, edited by G. Verzotti, A. Vettese, Milano, Skira, 2007, p. 174.
