Giuseppe Spagnulo was born in 1936 in Grottaglie, near Taranto, one of Italy’s most important centres for ceramic work After experimenting with the lathe technique at his father’s workshop, from 1952 to 1958 he was a pupil of Angelo Biancini at the Institute of Ceramics in Faenza, and in 1959 he enrolled at the Brera Academy in Milan, where he had the opportunity to work as an assistant in Fontana’s and Pomodoro’s studios He met Tancredi, Manzoni and, thanks to his friendship with Lucio Fontana, came into contact with the informal ceramics experience in Albisola
Subsequently, the artist devoted himself to stone and wood sculpture, which he exhibited, together with small works in stoneware, in his first solo exhibition in 1965 in Milan at the Salone Annunciata, where he also exhibited in 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976 and 1977 Giuseppe Spagnulo joined the 1968 protest and it was at this time that he created his first metal works: the Great Irons Sculpture for the artist is a social gesture, the very creation of the works takes place in steelworks, blast furnaces and workshops, where Spagnulo works together with the workers…
The physicality of materials is at the centre of Giuseppe Spagnulo’s artistic research: volumes flood space with a strong presence
In 1972 he took part in the Venice Biennale with the works Il gioco (The Game), Ascesa diagonale (Diagonal Ascent ) and La grande bandiera (The Big Flag); he exhibited his works in private and public venues, in Italy and abroad, on the occasion of solo and group exhibitions organised at the Galleria m in Bochum in Germany and at the Galerie Hubert in Zurich in 1974, at the Studio Marconi in Milan in 1976, at the Galleria Walter Storms in Munich, at the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin and at Documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977, at the Studio Carlo Grossetti in Milan in 1978
For the artist, physical-material work and intellectual work merged together until they reached a perfect balance: the series Cartoni, Archeologia and Paesaggi belong to these years, presented at his solo exhibition in 1977 at the Newport Harbor Art Museum in California
Two years later, the artist travelled to the Mediterranean, from Apulia to Greece In 1981, invited to Berlin to the Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museum, he retraced this journey through the suggestions of classical mythology and produced large works such as Antigone, Morta Natura, Le armi di Achille made with different materials including sand, wood, terracotta and iron
In 1982, Spagnulo returned to Milan and, using a huge lathe, created the large Tower, which he later also forged in steel
During these years, the artist showed many of his works in Italy and Germany: at the L’Isola gallery in Rome, the Galleria Civica in Modena and the Kunsthalle in Dusseldorf in 1984; at the Hans Barlach gallery in Cologne in 1986 and at the GAM in Bologna in 1989
In the late 1980s, as shown in the exhibition of Broken Irons at the Martano Gallery in Turin in 1989, Spagnulo favored the use of iron as the only material; in the 1990s, sculpture acquired a new meaning, the artist seeming to challenge the gravity of the material by setting up large suspended iron blocks
He exhibited again at the Venice Biennale in 1990 and 1995 and at the Palazzo Reale in Milan in 1997
The artist received the Faenza Prize for Lifetime Achievement and the Prize at the International Urban Design Competition in Milan, and he was presented at the Otto Gallery in Bologna in 2003 and at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice in 2005
In 2007 he won the competition for the Monumento ai Caduti di Nassiriya (Memorial to the Fallen of Nassiriya) with a large sculpture called La Foresta d’Acciaio (The Forest of Steel), placed in Schuster Park in Rome in 2008
He died in Milan in 2016
Piccola scultura in ferro
Ferro spezzato
Studio per la grande trappola