Sole deposto - 4 punti cardinali 1976

This is Gio Pomodoro’s ‘Sole deposto - 4 punti cardinali’, a bronze sculpture. I think of the labor, the physicality of it. The sculpture looks like architectural fragments, and something celestial all at once, doesn’t it? I see a kind of cubist sun, broken down into its component parts, resting on a ziggurat. It looks like the solid form is trying to become energy, and vice versa. The artist is saying something about the earth, and the sky, but he doesn’t want to say it too directly. It reminds me of some of Picasso’s later sculptures; the way he put things together from different angles and planes. Pomodoro clearly had a feel for volume, how positive and negative spaces interact to suggest movement and light. We all build on what came before. It’s not just about individual genius, but about being part of a long conversation. Like painting, sculpture is an ongoing experiment, and Pomodoro knew how to mix history with his own touch, his own way of seeing.