Modernist Abstract Wooden Sculpture, Italy, 1970s

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Modernist Abstract Wooden Sculpture, Italy, 1970s.

A circular wooden disc carries a band of interlocking, stepped elements, set like a cloud across a sun. The disc rises on a thin stem from a rough-cut block of timber, left with its grain, knots and signs of age. The band is built from small pieces of different woods, fitted together without decoration, so the construction itself becomes the motif. Luciano Bertolotto, the Italian maker who signed his works Pompi, built his sculptures by joining pieces rather than carving from a single block. Made in the 1990s, this one has the scale of a small landscape and sits comfortably on a shelf, a console or a desk.