Pietro Consagra. Frontal Sculpture

The monograph highlights the work of Consagra from 1947 to 1967: the first two crucial creative decades of his activity, which saw his affirrmation as one of the pioneers in the renewal of international modern sculpture. In his revolutionary invention of “scultura frontale” (frontal sculpture), rst theorized in 1952, Consagra realized almost two-dimensional, thin works that in their “frontal” placing rejected the tradition of three-dimensional and monumental sculpture, in order to develop a more direct and free inter- action between art, audience and environment. In creating “frontal” pieces to be experienced by a single point of view, as an antidote to the rhetoric and authoritarianism of conventional and monumental artistic sculpture, he wanted to integrate the plastic object and its surroundings into a completely new vision of space. Working in a variety of di erent materials, including bronze, iron, burnt wood, marble, and steel, he developed a continuous re ection about sculpture in relation to other disciplines, such as architecture and urbanism.