Pomodoro, Giò – Untitled

Giò Pomodoro was an Italian sculptor, printmaker, and stage designer, and the younger brother of Arnaldo Pomodoro. He studied at the Technical Institute in Pesaro until 1951. In 1954 he had his first one-man exhibition at the Galleria Numero in Florence. That same year, he moved to Milan, where he associated with leading avant-garde artists and started making jewelry. He then began to produce reverse reliefs in clay and also formed assemblages of various materials, including wood, textiles, and plaster subsequently cast in metal. He and his brother exhibited as jewelers at the 1956 Venice Biennale. In 1957, along with with Baj, Dangelo, Manzoni and others in the Movimento Arte Nucleare, he co-signed the manifesto The End of Style.
He began making assemblage sculptures out of different materials such as wood, paper and plaster, as well as reliefs and works in the round with gestural signs suggesting growth and multiplication. He was awarded the first prize for sculpture at the 1959 Paris Biennale and a David E. Bright Prize at the 1962 Venice Biennale.During the 1960s, he developed several series of sculptures, which explored a range of abstract shapes, usually with smooth undulating surfaces. In his later career, Pomodoro regularly received public commissions and produced a number of large outdoor structures.