Lot 28: Ettore Colla (1896-1968)

Giocoliere no. 3 iron 65in. (165cm.) (diam.) Executed in 1967-68, this work is unique PROVENANCE Carla Panicali, Rome. Acquired from the above by the present owner in the 1970s. LITERATURE G. de Marchis & S. Pinto, Ettore Colla, Rome 1972, no. 221 (illustrated p. 105). EXHIBITION Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Ettore Colla, June-August 1970, no. 69 (illustrated). This exhibition later travelled to Wuppertal, Von der Heydt Museum, October-November 1970. New York, Marlborough Gallery Inc., Ettore Colla, January-February 1973, no. 22 (illustrated). Bari, Castello Svevo, Ettore Colla, March-April 1976. Modena, Galleria Fonte d'Abisso, Ettore Colla 1896-1968, September-October 1980, no. 33 (illustrated). Parma, Teatro Farnese, Ettore Colla, September-October 1986, no. 66 (illustrated). NOTES The iconography of Giocoliere No.3 ("Juggler No. 3") appears for the first time in Colla's oeuvre in 1959 and its source is derived from the lottery wheel that juggles numbered balls for the Italian state lottery. In Giocoliere No.3 Colla has transformed this modern mechanical device into a giant iron armillary sphere that evokes the mechanical craftmanship and cartesian certainty of the middle ages. Looking like some giant contraption from a medieval dungeon, the banal source of this strongly geometric construction is entirely conscious. Much of Colla's work is based on the transforming of man-made found-objects into sculptures that bestow on these items the appearance of a historical artifact or sacred relic. His aesthetic is typically Italian in that his work constantly evokes a dialogue between the modernity of the present day and the cultural heritage of the past. In Giocoliere No.3 Colla has discovered in the banal mechanism used to juggle plastic balls for the lottery an archetypal geometric form that has formed the basic structure of numerous human objects and tools from sophisticated scientific instruments such as astrolabes and orreries to fisherman's lights, children's toys and juggling balls. In constructing this simple form in iron, Colla lends this familiar structure an unfamiliar sense of grandeur and nobility that is normally reserved for a precious and carefully preserved artifact from history. This transformation of a simple mechanical object that holds enormous importance for many of the poorest modern Italians, underscores the parallel that exists between the armillary spheres of the past and the modern day lottery. 16th and 17th century armillary spheres articulated an organised picture of the universe with either the Earth or the Sun at its centre, surrounded by the other known planets. They were physical manifestations of a worldview and of a system of thought. The sphere used for the lottery can be seen as a modern equivalent of these spheres where the planets/numbered balls circulate randomly within the outer framework of the universe but still play a key role in the life and imagination of many people. In transforming this symbol of the lottery into a monmuental sculpture in iron Colla has created a work that has all the appearance of being an impresseive relic from the Twentieth century.