Work: Bronze Construction

Description

“Ligi did not waste his time, he worked hard; in full artistic consciousness he created sculptures that were distant from technological fashions, crafted with the finest workmanship”, Enrico Gallian.

“Costruzione plastica” (Bronze Construction) is a small sculpture (h 25cm) in bronze and wood made by the sculptor Fulvio Ligi in 1988 and donated by him to the Museo Omero.

If you read the work by touch, start at the rectangular wooden base and work upwards. The statue itself consists of a low, flat, irregular, bronze polygon on which two rectangular blocks, set vertically, stand. These are linked by another rectangular block placed horizontally behind them. The three bronze blocks are joined together in the centre of the work. However, not one of the geometric solids that make up the sculpture is perfectly regular. Their edges are not straight but slightly curved.

The dark-veined wooden base is varnished and smooth to the touch. The bronze, on the other hand, has not been polished so is slightly rough, and brown in colour. The artist has evidently enjoyed fitting together the various elements that animate the work, combining sharp edges with gentler, curved lines. The small size of the sculpture makes tactile exploration straightforward and pleasant.

Ligi is a local artist and his career began in his hometown of Montefeltro, near Urbino in Le Marche region.
Abstract geometric constructions, created from materials such as aluminium and steel, were a long-standing characteristic of his works, both monumental and small-scale. This sculpture, from later in his career, indicates that Ligi had moved towards forms that were still geometric but now featured rounded edges and curved lines, giving life to a multifaceted but full space.