sculpture

Object NameSculpture

Artist Alessandro Diaz de Santillana (Italian, 1959-2018)

Assistant Pino Signoretto (Italian, 1944-2017)

Studio Pino Signoretto Studio

Made FromNon-lead Glass

Date1993

Place MadeItaly, Venice, Murano

TechniqueCased and blown, battuto-cut

SizeOverall H: 25.8 cm, W: 15.7 cm, L: 105.2 cm

Accession Number95.3.31

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

Exhibitions

Custodi di Sabbia

Palazzo Casati

On ViewContemporary Art + Design, Porch

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

De Santillana uses color and form to interpret the four elements of the exterior world (air, earth, fire, and water) and the five senses of the interior world (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch). In Custode di sabbia, he translates the element of fire and its sense-associations (searing, burning, glowing, smoldering) into a brilliant red abstract form. The “sand” in the title refers to the heat of the desert, and also to the sand that is the main ingredient of glass.

Physical DescriptionTransparent red cased in colorless non-lead glass; blown, cased, battuto cut. Long horizontal hollow sculpture with ends tapered to points (small opening at lower end tip), flattened body narrows at point slightly off of center creating two uneven lozenge-shaped sections, at narrowing point both ends of the form bend upward at a slight angle with longer end raised slightly higher than lower; body decorated with overall overlapping ridges of unpolished carving; base ground and polished flat at two points near center; no pontil.
Provenance

Source Elliott Brown Gallery - 1995-03-03