Curated by Alberto Salvadori

In collaboration with Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro

March 22 - June 28, 2024

Cortesi Gallery, Via Morigi 8, 20123 Milan

At its Milanese site in Palazzo Morigi, the Cortesi Gallery is delighted to present the exhibition Arnaldo Pomodoro: il movimento possibile, curated by Alberto Salvadori, realized in collaboration with the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro. The exhibition is a fascinating incursion into the extraordinary career of one of the most significant artists of our time, through an itinerary exploring less well-known aspects of the sculptor's work. Both the bronze sculptures representing the elementary forms of geometric solids and works with various formats and materials are present in the exhibition, the latter enabling Pomodoro's research to be examined in constant relations starting from the micro-dimension, from the planning and realization of the first jewellery items, to interventions of an architectural and landscaping nature.

The exhibition offers the public a unique opportunity to explore the beginnings and the most important stages of the artist's career, for the first time presenting a group of previously unseen works realized starting from the second half of the 1950s.

Since the very beginnings of his career, Arnaldo Pomodoro has always been present at the development of the artistic research and movements of his own time, perfectly capturing its Zeitgeist. Those years were in fact characterized by his enthusiastic, intense, and prolific stamina, by meetings, travels and acts of co-operation. His first trip to the United States in 1959 proved to be a fundamental moment during which Pomodoro realized that innovation was permeating the artistic scene of the West Coast, with reference to Los Angeles and San Francisco, which a few years later would become the central pole of his activities.

The result of this insight can be clearly seen in the wall-mounted works full of internal energy - which rework languages close to him, such as the informal or the intrinsic gesture in Burri's matterism - also through the use of and experimentation with materials that are heterodox to the tradition.

The exhibition offers visitors the possibility of understanding how Pomodoro is able to find himself at ease in any context of forms and dimensions. From the two-dimensionality of wall-mounted works such as Presenza interrotta and Mondana e la sua ombra to the three-dimensionality of Colonne del viaggiatore, including jewellery and ornaments, to landscaping interventions such as the Progetto per il nuovo cimitero di Urbino.

The exhibition itinerary also gives an account of friendships and collaborations with poets such as Paolo Volponi, Attilio Bertolucci and Emilio Villa, thanks to extraordinary artist books that show how much narration and writing have always been at the heart of his research and his work. Also presented in the exhibition are two experimental films that came about from the artist's urgent desire to express his thought and artistic work: Arnaldo Pomodoro makes a sphere (1968) made at Stanford by filmmaker Joe Green, and Shaping negation (1970) realized in collaboration with Francesco Leonetti and Ugo Mulas.

The exhibition project is intended to underline the figure of Arnaldo Pomodoro as an artist with a Renaissance spirit, open to and taking part in his contemporary world and its Promethean transformations. Arnaldo Pomodoro: il movimento possibile offers the opportunity to go on a fascinating journey through an extraordinary career, always in movement and continually evolving, celebrating the work of one of the greatest sculptors of our time.