Maker/Artist
Fabro, Luciano
Italian sculptor, conceptual artist, and writer, 1936-2007
Fabro participated in the "Arte Povera-Im Spazio" show in Genoa in 1967. His early works in glass and steel ask questions about perceptual experience and relationships between individuals, geometry, and space. Fabro's famous "Piede" series (1968-1971) refute the simplistic description of Arte Povera as an art of poor materials. The feet, resembling the paws of mythological animals, are made of carved marble, polished bronze, or hand-blown glass; long tubes of fine silk top the feet and resemble legs. Their subject matter also refers to the Italy's artistic heritage. Another similar series of about the same time period consists of sculptures of the boot-shape of Italy in various materials. Other works used cloth as well, e.g. "Clothes-Hangers" (1976) and "Habitats" (1983). He turned to heavy stone pieces in the late 1980s; his "Double Face of the Sky" (1986) consists of a massive marbled-blue rock suspended by steel cable in such a way as to appear much lighter.
