Rosalda Gilardi was born in Savona. She
studied sculpture at the Accademia Albertina of
Turin and received her diploma in 1959. Before she
had even graduated, she was encouraged by her
teachers and sculptor Umberto Mastroianni to exhibit
in Turin. In 1956 she was nominated Belle Art's
National Ambassador, Turin Italy.
In 1958 she showed in the Mostra
d'arte giovanile at the Palazzo della
Quadriennale, Rome, and was awarded the Premio Citta'
di Roma e del Consiglio dei Ministri. That same year
she got married and moved to Locarno in Switzerland,
where she met and befriended Jean Arp. She
participated in many group shows and enjoyed solo
exhibitions at the Neuchatel and Moutier museums,
often garnering honors for her work. She also
produced public works of sacred art. At the same
time she took part in shows in Italy, including the
Biennials of Carrara, the Milanese Permanente, and
Padua's Bronzetto.
The second of June 1961, she was nominated
"Commendatore" Order of merit of the Italian Republic, for
Art merits. In 1966 she met Henry Moore, Jacques Lipchitz,
Isamu Noguchi, and Marino Marini during a visit to
Querceta in the Versilia area. Deeming it an ideal
place to work, she set up a studio. The following
year she went to Paris, where she exhibited in the
Salon de Mai and met Cesar Baldaccini, Etienne
Martin, and Emile Gilioli. In 1972 she took part in
the Venice Biennale and was a guest of Peggy
Guggenheim, who bought the sculpture "Presenze"
for her collection. Two years later she spent four
months travelling around Latin America and visiting
Venzuela, Columbia, Equador, Peru', and Argentina.
She was later invited, along with Andrea Cascella,
Arnaldo Pomodoro, and Alberto Viani, to represent
Italy in the 1979 "Esposition de Sculpture Europeenne"
in Brussels.
During the 1980s she took part in many shows and
devoted herself to graphic art, some samples of
which can be seen at the Gabinetto delle Stampe e
Disegni, Florence, and many other Italian and
foreign museums. In the 1990s her work was
well-received at the Osaka International
Triennial Competition of Sculpture, and she won
the "Rosa Papa Tamburi" award from the city of
Iesi, where a survey of her work was presented at
the Pinacoteca Palazzo Pianetti. Throughout the
course of her career, Gilardi evolved from
figurative to abstract art and eventually worked
only with essential shapes, to which color was added
in her latest works. Rosalda Gilardi died in 1999 in
Lugano.
Giuseppe Marchiori
Rosalda has solved the problems of style, imposed by
overcoming monumental archaism , with a clarity of image
, which leaves no room for misunderstandings . Her
sculptures belong to a conception of form, which differs
significantly from the formalisms every kind and nature,
and the noisy and colorful academies of markets and
fairs in a fictitious modernity".
Shortly About Her
In 1972 Rosalda Gilardi took part in the Venice
Biennale and was a guest of Peggy Guggenheim, who bouth
the sculpture Presenze for her collection.
