Giò Pomodoro
Studi per “bandiere”, 1963
tempera and ink on paper, 40 × 47 cm
Giò Pomodoro writes: “Drawing sculptures is living a germinal condition that foresees or follows their construction. It is drawn freely, at the beginning, when what is evoked is immaterial and vague but pressing from within us. The next and necessary outcome is that of making contact with the materials that will form the work. Immediately afterwards the drawing will become constructive and in various ways. Sometimes the construction drawing will be done directly on the cut faces of the stone block and then move on to directly cutting the stone, from the outside towards the inside of the block, which is like continuing to draw while digging. Or you can draw the load-bearing structures that support the perimeter edges of the surfaces in tension. Sculpting is a bit like drawing material, in three-dimensional space, continuously. It is a drawing different from that of a painter and closer to that of an architect. However, the drawing is never the work, which is much more complex than his drawing. The temporal and spatial distance that separates the drawing from the finished sculpture is very large, as is the emotional one. However, I have never stopped drawing, always."
from: Giò Pomodoro. 1930-2002. Un omaggio della Fondazione Ragghianti, exhibition catalogue, edited by V. Fagone, Lucca, Fondazione Ragghianti, 2003, p. 34.
