Art@Site www.artatsite.com Arnaldo Pomodoro Il Grande Disco
Artist:

Arnaldo Pomodoro

Title:

Il Grande Disco

Year:
1973
Adress:
Piazza Filippo Meda
Website:
beautiful but also disturbing
It is nice to look at Grande Disco by Pomodoro: you see shining surfaces, various rhythms of technical parts, fractures and tiltings of the surface.
But don’t ask me what I see.
I could say that this is a kind of millstone: in the center of the disk you will see a square. But what do you see between the open worked areas?
Also, you might say that this is a city with four main roads with flat meadows in between. But, why do you see this on the front- and back-side and is the surface broken?
I can't break free from a painful feeling because of the opened surfaces and the cracks. The areas are broken open or a cut but a sharp object. You can see the cracks by walking around the artwork; the surfaces are tilted between each other. It will feel painful that a smooth surface is heavy-handed and is opened or broken.
All in all; the Grande Disco is beautiful, exciting and interesting but also difficult and disturbing.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com

Vertaling
mooi maar ook verontrustend
Het is plezierig om Grande Disco van Pomodoro te bekijken: je ziet spiegelende oppervlakten, verschillende ritmes van technische onderdelen, breuken in en kantelingen van het oppervlakte.
Maar vraag mij niet wat ik zie.
Ik zou kunnen zeggen dat dit een soort molensteen is; in het midden van de schijf zie je een vierkant. Maar wat zie je tussen de open gewerkte oppervlakten?
Je zou ook kunnen zeggen dat dit een stad is met vier uitvalswegen met daartussen vlakke weilanden. Maar waarom zie je dit aan de voor- en achterzijde van de schijf en is het oppervlakte gebroken?
Ik kan niet loskomen van een pijnlijk gevoel bij de open gewerkte oppervlakten en de breuken. De oppervlakten zijn open gebroken of ze zijn met een scherp voorwerp open gesneden. De breuken zie je als je rondom de schijf loopt; de oppervlakten zijn ten opzichte van elkaar gekanteld. Het voelt pijnlijk dat een glad oppervlakte hardhandig is open gebroken of geslepen.
Al met al is Grande Disco mooi, spannend en interessant maar toch ook moeilijk en verontrustend.
Door Theo, www.artatsite.com

www.tripadvisor.it:
La grande scultura realizzata nel 1980 non è l'unico disco di Arnaldo Pomodoro presente in città: un altro si trova nel cortile delle Gallerie d'Italia e si può vedere passando davantoi all'ingresso di via Manzoni. Tornata nel 2010 in Piazza Meda, in mezzo alla piazza, di fronte all'austeoa sede della Banca Popolare di Milano, nella sua posizione originale da cui era stata spostata per quattro anni permettere la costruzione di parcheggi sotterranei, non fu più possibile rimontare il meccanismo che ne permetteva il movimento. I due grandi cerchi di bronzo vogliono contrastare con il verde dell'aiuola su cui è appoggiato ed il tipico grigio della città, come un sole i cui raggi sono ricordati dalle fenditure che attraversano la scultura.

Translation
The large sculpture created in 1980 is not the single disc of Pomodoro in city: another is located in the courtyard of Italy and galleries you can see via davantoi at the entrance to via Manzoni. Back in 2010 in Piazza Meda, in the middle of the square, opposite the austeoa headquarters of the Banca Popolare di Milano, in its original position from which had been moved for four years to allow the construction of underground car parks, was no longer possible to reassemble the mechanism which allowed the movement. The two large bronze circles want to counter with the green of the flowerbed that is supported and the typical grey of the city, as a Sun whose rays are remembered by fissures that run through the sculpture.

www.mintmuseums.org:
Many of his sculptures are in the form of spheres and discs and like Il Grande Disco, contain a contrast between their smooth golden exteriors and their rougher, darker interiors, suggesting a process of self-destruction and regeneration.

www.wikipedia.org:
Arnaldo Pomodoro (born 23 June 1926) is an Italian sculptor. He was born in Morciano, Romagna, Italy. He lives and works in Milan. His brother, Giò Pomodoro (1930–2002) was also a sculptor.
In 1953, Pomodoro attended an exhibition of Picasso which was held in Milan at the Palazzo Reale. This exhibition made a strong impression on him, and a year after he moved to Milan where he joined the artistic community and became friends with Lucio Fontana, Dangelo, Sanesi, Baj, and others. He took part in the 10th Triennale in Milan, and together with his brother Gio' he also participated in the Venice Biennale.
In 1959, Arnaldo Pomodoro received a grant to study American art, and traveled to the United States for the first time. He describes his visit to MoMa and seeing Brancusi's sculptures as a strong inspiration for his work. In San Francisco, he met Mark Rothko who was teaching at the California School of Fine Arts. In New York Pomodoro met Costantino Nivola and Enrico Donati who introduced him to such artists as Franz Kline, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and others. He also met sculptors David Smith and Louise Nevelson, and organized an exhibition New Work from Italy, dedicated to the Italian artists.
Later in 1960s, he developed a collaboration with the Marlborough Gallery in New York. In 1963, Pomodoro received the International Prize for Sculpture at the VII São Paulo Biennale and also the National Prize for Sculpture at the XXXII Venice Biennale in 1964. In 1966, he became an artist in residence at Stanford University, and then at Berkeley University and Mills College. The following year he created the Sfera grande for the Italian Pavilion at the Montreal Expo. This sculpture is now located in front of the Farnesina Palace in Rome. That year Pomodoro won the International Prize for Sculpture from the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh.
In 1972, Arnaldo Pomodoro returned to set design, and worked on the play Das Käthchen von Heilbronn by Heinrich von Kleist, which was staged in Zurich. In 1984, he had a large retrospective exhibition at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence. In 1988, Pomodoro participated in the Venice Biennale as well as the international exhibition of sculpture at the World Expo in Brisbane. His work Forme del Mito(Forms of Myth) which was displayed at the Expo, was later purchased by Brisbane City Council for the City of Brisbane.
In 2014-15, Pomodoro finished one of his fundamental works – the Pietrarubbia Group, which was started in 1975. He the explains the idea behind this project:
Arnaldo Pomodoro: 'In the early 1970s, on the advice of some Pesaro friends, I visited Pietrarubbia, a small town in Montefeltro between the Marche and Romagna, which had been built, according to legend, in 980. At that time the village was almost completely abandoned. I realized that somehow it had to be born again: and how, if not through the participation of artists? I had to kick it off. So, I had the idea of dedicating one of my works to Pietrarubbia and I planned a series of sculptures as a cycle. The Pietrarubbia Group was born, a work 'in progress', a space defined by a series of sculptures – in fact, a space that became all sculpture – in which certain values are given meaning, certain historical values, in the sense that history is always the same… In short, I would like that anyone who sees this work could read within it the very spirit that comes from the Middle Ages: the gate that rises, the drawbridge, the foundation, the gate that opens and closes and can also be seen as a negative and positive book…'