Pietro Consagra (1920 Mazara del Vallo, Italy – 2005 Milan, Italy) was a central figure in post-war Italian sculpture, known for his innovative exploration of surface, plane, and frontal vision in three-dimensional art.
After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo, Consagra moved to Rome in 1944 and, in 1946, traveled to Paris, where he encountered the European avant-garde. In 1947, he was among the founders of the Forma 1 group, the first Italian postwar abstract artists’ collective, which promoted experimentation and abstraction in a period dominated by traditional figurative art.
Consagra’s early works focused on the philosophy of the surface, creating sculptures from thin planes placed side by side or atop one another. This approach became a hallmark of his career. His bronzes, titled “Colloqui”, were shown at the Venice Biennale in 1954, 1956, and 1960, earning him international recognition. He participated in major exhibitions worldwide, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (1962) and Documenta in Kassel (1959 and 1964).
In the mid-1960s, Consagra experimented with painted iron sculptures in vibrant colors such as pink, lilac, carmine, violet, white, and black, a period in dialogue with contemporary Pop Art. In 1968, he created the “Città Frontale” series and intensified his work with marble, further expanding his formal language.
Among his most notable public commissions are the 28-meter-high steel “Stella”, the Meeting building, and the unfinished Teatro in Gibellina. In later years, he installed monumental works in major cities, including “Giano” in Rome (1997) and “Doppia Bifrontale” in Strasbourg (2003), in front of the European Parliament. Retrospectives of his work were held at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome (1989), the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (1991), and Palazzo di Brera in Milan (1996).
Consagra’s work remains influential for its radical exploration of form, surface, and spatial dynamics, bridging modernist abstraction with the human scale of public art.
For information on available works by the artist, please contact the gallery.