Giò Pomodoro and the Theme of the Sun

The artwork depicted aligns with the complex geometric and spatial-plastic research of Giò Pomodoro (1930–2002), one of the foremost Italian abstract sculptors of the 20th century.

Poetics and the "Suns" Cycle: Beginning in the mid-1970s and continuing throughout the 1980s, Giò Pomodoro stepped away from his well-known "Superfici in tensione" ("Surfaces in Tension"—organic, edge-free forms) to focus on architectonic, geometric, and structural sculpture. The Sun became his central iconographic and symbolic motif—conceived not merely as a celestial body, but as a generator of energy, light, and spatial tension.

Materials and Technique: The artist rendered this subject in various materials, including Belgian black marble, White Carrara marble, grey stone, and bronze. In his carved and polished marble versions, the projecting surfaces and concavities created by interlocking volumes trap natural light, producing shifting contrasts of shadow and reflection as the viewer moves around the piece.

Historical Context (1980s): The year 1985 represented the peak of his monumental, sun-focused period. During this time, Pomodoro produced both collection-scale sculptures in marble and bronze and major public urban installations on the same theme—most notably the Sole-Luna-Albero (Sun-Moon-Tree) complex in Monza (completed in 1985) and Sole Deposto (Laid Sun) in Orciano di Pesaro. The monolithic structure shows his signature articulation of geometric forces coiling and radiating from the core of the stone.