Pietro Consagra

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Pietro Consagra (October 6, 1920 – July 16, 2005) was an Italian sculptor known for his abstract sculptures mainly in iron and bronze.

[edit] Biography

Consagra was born in Mazara del Vallo, a town in western Sicily. His father was a travelling salesman who earned a good income sufficient to support him at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Palermo. Consagra moved to Rome in the 1940s forming a group called "Forma" or "Shape" to promote abstract art. He wrote an essay called "La Necessita della Scultura" or "The Need for Sculpture" in 1952.

His work started becoming widely known from the mid-1950's and has been exhibited widely throughout the world notably the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Consagra won the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the 1960 Venice Biennale. His works also appear in a number of European plazas including in Rome and Strasbourg.

Consagra returned to Sicily where he sculpted a number of significant works during the 1980s including gates and iron doors representing a "two-dimensional" sculpture. With Senator Ludovico Corrao, he created an openair museum on the ruins of Gibellina destroyed in a 1968 earthquake.

In 1980, he wrote an autobiography in Italian called Vita Mia or "My Life". He published a book of poetry in 1985 called Ci Penso Amo (ISBN L20000). Consagra died in July 2005 in Milan with his final wish being to be buried at the open air museum at Gibellina.