Work of the Week: Disc

31 March 2016

View all images

Our work of the week is Gregorio Vardanega’s ‘Disc’ 1960, circa. Which is currently on show in The horizon is the point of no return, works by Georgie Grace and from the Kettle’s Yard Collection at the University of Cambridge Library.

In A Way of Life Jim Ede said; ‘I was delighted to find in Paris, soon after it was made (1960), Vardanega’s large disc. Even the short length of fishing gut which holds it allows it to rotate on its own for quite a while.’ As the mobile structure turns, it catches and reflects light. At Kettle’s Yard this work is displayed in front of a large window among plants and other reflective objects, creating patterns of light within the space. At the University Library ‘Disc’ is hung in front of Eric Moody’s Marking Time acting as a magnifying glass on the painting and creating bright reflections on its surface.

Vardanega was born near Venice. He studied in South America and was a member of the Art Concrete group. After exhibiting in Europe in the 1950s and meeting artists such as Brancusi, Pevsner and Sonia Delaunay, he settled in Paris in the 1950s, and came into contact with Ede who bought three pieces for Kettle’s Yard in the 1960s.