(Parma 1896–1968 Rome)
Rilievo con sbarre, 1959, assemblage of used iron parts, 70 x 50 cm, (AR)

Provenance:
Galleria L’Isola, Rome (label on the reverse)
Emilio Villa Collection
Private Collection, Rome
Marlborough Galleria, Rome
Corrado Rava Collection, Trento
European Private Collection

Exhibitions:
London, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Iron Sculpture, Ettore Colla, 1959, exh. cat. (with foreword by L. Alloway and C. Delloye);
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Ettore Colla en Shamai Haber, 1 April - 2 May 1960, exh. cat. p. 234;
Milan, Galleria Toninelli, Colla, sculture 4 - 28 June 1963;
Basel, Basel Messe, June 1970;
Bologna, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, L’Informale in Italia, 1983 (label on the reverse);
Rome, Galleria L’Isola, Ettore Colla, November - December 1983, catalogue cover image;
Milan, Galleria Arte 92, Ettore Colla-Opere 1950/1968, 18 April - 6 July 1996, exh. cat. p. 27, no. 11

Literature:
Uno scultore giudica l’Architettura: Ettore Colla in L’Architettura, cronaca e storia, Rome, no.17, September 1959, Year I, no. 5, p. 350;
Giorgio De Marchis, Sandra Pinto, Colla, published by Bulzoni, Rome 1972, p. 77, ill. no. 109

Colla does not draw. Instead, his writing is organised as a collage. And in relief, to be precise. Composing is a slow process consisting of meditative decantation [...] Likewise, the rough quantitative presence of metal is filtered in the mental climate of the studio, and re-emerges in different forms with their own specific qualities (roughness, colour, opacity, weight, hardness, force...) and their own behaviours (node, joint, edge, overlapping, accumulating, ...)
Flaminio Gualdoni