PIETRO CONSAGRA

Mazzara del Vallo 1920 – Milano 2005

Pietro Consagra (Italian, 1920-2005) was one of Italy’s leading postwar sculptors and, occasionally, painter. Consagra studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Palermo from 1938-44, then moved to Rome.

From 1946-7 he started to make abstract metal sculptures, and with the painters Accardi, Turcato and others founded the group Forma in 1947, with a periodical of the same name, which proclaimed the importance of the abstract tendency in art. His first solo exhibition was at the Galleria Mola in Rome in 1947.

From 1955 Consagra made sculptures in the form of double-sided low reliefs, with abstract shapes sometimes suggesting the encounter of several figures. The sculptures were usually made in metal but sometimes in wood or marble. Consagra was awarded a City of Venice prize for an Italian artist at the 1960 Venice Biennale.