Edoardo Villa
Birth name	Edoardo Daniele Villa
Born	31 May, 1915 Bergamo Bergamo Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan... , Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Died	1 May, 2011 Johannesburg Johannesburg Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa... , South Africa South Africa The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
Nationality	South African
Field	Sculpture Sculpture Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
Training	Andrea Fontini Art School
Movement	Abstract art Abstract art Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an... cubism Cubism Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
Works	The Knot, Cape Town Cape Town Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality... Confrontation, Johannesburg Johannesburg Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa... Thrust, University of Pretoria University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria is a multi campus public research university located in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa...
Awards	Honorary Professorship University of Pretoria University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria is a multi campus public research university located in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa... Medal of Honour: South African Academy of Science & Art, 1979

Edoardo Daniele Villa (1915-2011) is a notable South African sculptor

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 of Italian descent who worked primarily in steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

, and bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

.

Life

Villa was born in Bergamo

Bergamo

Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...

, Italy and he studied at the Andrea Fontini Art School. While studying sculpture in Milan,in 1939, Villa was conscripted for two years into the Italian army at the outbreak of World War II. By 1940 he was posted to North Africa, where he was injured and captured in Egypt by the English. Some time between 1941 and 1942, he was shipped to South Africa where he then spent the next four years at the Zonderwater prisoner of war camp. Zonderwater was opened in February 1941 and by the end of 1942 and held 63 000 prisoners under the care of Colonel H.F. Prinsloo whose head was later sculpted in bronze by Villa for the military museum. After his release, Villa remained in South Africa where he continued his vocation as a sculptor.

Villa started work with conventional heads and figures and changed to work on stylized abstractions. His work includes abstract explanations of the human condition but retains some figurative concepts. Villa's work has a strong cross-cultural synthesis which involves the Italian and the African. It is clearly informed by the cubism of Picasso (who had discovered African art in Paris at the Trocadero).

Villa gave an interview in which he said, “After being a prisoner of war in South Africa I decided to stay and start my career because of the opportunities available for the youth, the ‘open space’ as opposed to the ‘closed’ life of a continental. Everything in Europe I felt had been done, questioned and exhausted. Here, in Africa, I felt I had the opportunity to explore ... If anything could sum up my fundamental concern in art, it is that of the human and the individual – the human condition …. Museums are marvellous but human participation, physical proximity and tactile engagement are more important.”

Villa's sculpture developed further during the 1950s, when the use of cut steel and bronze. At this time he also taught at the Polly Art Centre in Johannesburg. The Polly Art Centre was originally founded as an adult education institution; in 1952 it was converted into an art and exhibition centre. Until its closure in 1960, it was the only place – apart from a few private galleries – where black artists in Johannesburg could pursue their art and show their works.

In 1961, along with Cecil Skotnes, Cecily Sash and Giuseppe Cattaneo and Sydney Kumalo, Villa made up the artist group “Amadlozi” (Bantu for “spirit of the ancestors)” for the conscious appropriation of African sculptural traditions.

Villa's work includes larger than life steel installations, such as Reclining Figure in Pieter Roos Park, Johannesburg. This work was intended as a play statue for children, paid for by Anglo American, selected by the Parktown and Westcliffe Heritage Trust and donated to the City of Johannesburg and unveiled by the Deputy Mayor of Johannesburg Councillor C.E. Fabel on 8-9-1984.

Edoardo Villa represented South Africa at the Venice Biennal on five occasions and he has received awards at the São Paulo Biennales of 1957 and 1959. He has exhibited in over a hundred shows in Italy, Europe, England, Israel, South America, Africa and the United States.

In 1994/1995 Villa donated 140 small and 10 large works to the University of Pretoria. On 31 May 1995, to celebrate the artist's 80th birthday, the Edoardo Villa Museum was officially opened at the University of Pretoria

University of Pretoria

The University of Pretoria is a multi campus public research university located in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa...

, South Africa.

Villa lived and worked at his home in Johannesburg, He was a friend of the artist and art collector, Vittorino Meneghelli and the author Jillian Becker

Jillian Becker

Jillian Becker is a novelist, prize-winning story-writer, critic, journalist, lecturer, best known internationally as a writer, researcher, and authority on the subject of terrorism.-Life:...

 and the architect, Monty Sack. Edoardo Villa Died in the Hospital on 1 May 2011 at age 95.

See also

• Edoardo Villa Museum