Decorative Objects

A beautiful bronze sculpture by Italian artist Pietro Cascella, (February 2, 1921-May 18, 2008). Cascella used various materials- ceramic, bronze, cement, sand and wire netting, in the 1950s he created a number of small, tactile reliefs, sometimes adorned with surreal, biomorphic forms inspired by his friend, the Chilean artist Roberto Matta. "As well as being theatrical, much of his art has a ritualistic quality. For open-air settings, he made strange, walled structures that look like Prehistoric sanctuaries, while smaller carvings, in travertine rock, represented archetypal forms: cosmic bodies, germinating seeds, even women in childbirth. Their simplified, geometric shapes are reminiscent of the abstract sculptor Constantin Brancusi, while also looking distinctly archaic." Former collection of Ruth Ford...