When we arrived at our Tuscany bed and breakfast last month, I couldn’t help but notice some interesting shapes off in the distance: geometric—seemingly too perfect in form to be natural—and too big to be any thing other than manmade. I was curious.
The next day, while driving along a winding road near the town of Volterra, we came across this large circular form resting in a wheat field. It was completely unexpected, out in the middle of nowhere, and overlooking yet another beautiful landscape. It turns out to be the work of Volterra-born sculptor Mauro Staccioli. In 1972 he embarked on a series he called “scultura-intervento” which began in urban settings and later included natural environments. The piece we found is titled Anello ’97 (Ring ’97) and was one of many gifts to his home town in 2009.
I’ve always been a fan of large-scale, simplistic form sculptures, especially in steel or concrete (notably the work of Richard Serra). The good news is you don’t have to go to Italy to see some fine examples. Just pay a visit to the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle or the Bellingham campus of Western Washington University.
