Arnaldo Pomodoro (Brother: Gio Pomodoro, also a famous sculptor)
Arnaldo Pomodoro is one of the most prominent contemporary Italian sculptors, renowned worldwide for his monumental bronze spheres that appear to “crack open” to reveal complex, clockwork-like interiors.
Growing up in the Romagna region, Pomodoro originally studied surveying and stage design, but he soon turned his focus to jewelry and goldsmithing alongside his brother, Gio. This early experience with intricate, small-scale metalwork deeply influenced his later monumental sculptures. In 1954, he moved to Milan, where he became a key figure in the “Informalism” movement, seeking to break away from traditional geometric abstraction.
His signature style emerged in the 1960s with the series Sfera con Sfera (Sphere within Sphere). These works consist of enormous, highly polished bronze spheres with fractured surfaces that expose a dense, chaotic, and mechanical-looking “inner life.” These geometric “gears” and eroded patterns symbolize the tension between the perfect technological exterior and the complex, often fragile, internal reality of the modern world.
Pomodoro’s work is characterized by a “negative” carving technique—where the interest lies not just in the volume of the sculpture, but in the voids and lacerations within it. His massive installations are prominently displayed in iconic locations worldwide, including the Vatican Museums, the United Nations Plaza in New York, Trinity College in Dublin, and several major cities across Japan and Italy.
Beyond sculpture, he has made significant contributions to the world of opera and theater through his avant-garde set designs, treating the stage as a living, three-dimensional extension of his sculptural philosophy. In 1995, he established the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro in Milan to promote contemporary art and document his extensive career.
Active in others filds : Jewelry Design, Set Design (Theater/Opera), Architecture, Graphic Arts.
