Beschreibung:

Fausto Melotti La Pioggia 1966 brass 70 7/8 x 48 3/8 x 23 5/8 in. (180 x 123 x 60 cm) This work is unique.
Provenance Private Collection, Milan Exhibited Florence, Galleria La Piramide, Fausto Melotti May - June, 1975 Sanremo, Galleria Beniamino, Fausto Melotti July - August, 1975 Trento, Castello del Buoncosiglio, Fausto Melotti Opere 1935-1977, May - July, 1977 New York, Acquavella Galleries, Fausto Melotti April 16 - June 13, 2008 Naples, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Melotti, December 16, 2011 - April 11, 2012 Literature V. Scheiwiller, Fausto Melotti exh. cat., Galleria Beniamino, Sanremo 1975, tav. 6 (illustrated) B. Passamani, C. Belli, B. Mattedi, Fausto Melotti Opere 1935-1977, Calliano: Manfrini, 1977, no. 23 (illustrated) G. Celant, Melotti: Catalogo Generale, Tomo I, Sculture 1929-1972, Milan: Electa, 1995, no. 1966 16 (illustrated with wrong dimensions) Fausto Melotti exh. cat., Acquavella Galleries, New York, 2008, pp. 40, 102 (illustrated) G. Celant, Melotti, exh. cat., Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples, 2011, n.p., no. 293 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Fausto Melotti has given a sculptural form to the invisibility and ethereality of poetry. In La Pioggia, rain, one of the largest sculptures by the artist, the physical act of raining is transformed into a religious space where people worship the drops of water forming a skeleton-like volcano. The cloud from where the water is pouring appears as if a halo, or a god-eye, while the puddles forming on the ground look like reflections of that self-same halo above. The sculpture has, in and of itself, become a dance and a celebration of rite that propitiates and welcomes the arrival of the rain. Many artists since Melotti have been similarly inspired by water and the rain – among them Gabriel Orozco with his photos of puddles and Urs Fischer with his acid colored rain drops scattered from the ceiling. Like Alexander Calder Melotti makes instability the focus of his art. Everything, both in the art and in response to it, is unstable and because of that, all is magic. La Pioggia is magic, transparent, the very essence of simplicity, yet has the strength, the power, and the mystery of the graffiti in the Paleolithic caves. Melotti’s La Pioggia is ancient and contemporary at the same time; it’s about the ritual of creation; it’s about nature. That same physical miracle, according to the artist, is nothing but a screen through which God be seen, or behind which He can hide. Read More