Head Bust Artist Research: Ugo La Pietra

For the ice breaker exercise, we had to research an artist base on creating a head bust. Therefore I decided to look at Ugo La Pietra.

Ugo La Pietra was born in the Italian, town of Bussi sul Tirino in 1938. Since in 1964, he graduated from the Milan Polytechnic with a degree in architecture and began his studies in the visual arts and music. Ugo La Pietra has already described himself as a communication systems and visual arts researcher, moving between the worlds of art and design in his early life. Therefore, he works with lots of art media and with multiple identities at the same moment, including architecture, artist, filmmaker, editor, musician, cartoonist, and so teacher. Between the year 1960, Ugo La Pietra did a lot of research and a ton of experimental activities, finally developed some original theories, “De-balancing System” is one of the famous ones. He has transmitted his work through numerous exhibitions in Italy and around the world. In order to communicate experimental art and the cultured mindset, he loves to works with lots of different artists and the poet.

 

This set collection was designed for the 150th anniversary of Italy and it had been commemorated in Turin in 2011 with a large art and design workshop, the exhibition named Il Futuro Nelle mani. 

This exhibition aims to showcase something fresh and exclusive that Italy's finest crafts have to offer in this modern society. Ugo La Pietra was in charge of one of the program - Unity in Diversity. There had present out a collection composed of 21 anthropomorphic flowerpot holders designed by himself. Each "head" represented one of the 20 Italian regions, every single design had its own distinct features and characteristics, the middle and the final "ass" represents the whole of Italy.

 

 

This collection reminds me of those ceramic dolls in jewellery shops, always with the delicate and perfect outlook design, most of them are around the theme of religion, so Ugo La Pietra's fun and stylistic creation definitely take my attention.

 Although each piece of art is clearly written at the bottom which region they belong to, basically the design has already told base on the characteristics of their own region. For instance, "Calabria" has lots of chilli on top of the head, obviously there are famous on different kinds of chilli peppers and spicy dishes; Lazio is about the Colosseum, the amazing architected; Friuli has two glass bottle on top of the head which mean there are the best for producers of white wines... As I observed with these design, it can be seen there are mixed with many elements of his architectural design style. The whole work presents a clean and rich visual effect. He created by using some relatively mild colours and there is not too much sharp contrast. I think the design is detail and interesting. From the white skin colour to the facial hair characteristics, it represents the unique culture of each region, which shows his deep love and understanding of his own country. These are really creative and fun artwork.

Reference:

Biography. [Online] Ugo La Pietra. Available from : https://ugolapietra.com/en/biography/ [Accessed 17/04/21].

Unity in diversity: 21 anthropomorphic ceramic works of Caltagirone. (2013) [Online] Interni Magazine. Available from : https://www.internimagazine.com/agenda/unity-in-diversity-21-anthropomorphic-ceramic-works-of-caltagirone/ [Accessed 17/04/21].

Ugo La Pietra - Designers - Italian Design Contract. Available from : https://www.italiandesigncontract.com/en/designers/ugo-la-pietra/ [Accessed 17/04/21].

Ugo La Pietra’s Heads. [Online] Commune | Daily. Available from : https://communedesign.tumblr.com/post/92763534775/ugo-la-pietras-heads [Accessed 17/04/21].