Berto Lardera Italian-French, 1911-1989

Born in La Spezia, Italy, just outside Florence, Berto Lardera was a self-taught sculptor whose work was deeply influenced by the shipbuilding and metallurgy he observed in the dockyards of his hometown. This exposure inspired his lifelong experimentation with various metals, including iron, aluminum, and Corten steel.

At the age of twenty-eight, Lardera established his first workshop in Florence and participated in his first exhibition in Milan in 1942, during his active involvement in the Italian Resistance. He later moved to Paris and showcased his work in galleries and salons throughout Europe, including three appearances at the Venice Biennale.

In his early sculptures, Lardera affixed hand-cut geometric shapes to two-dimensional bas-relief vertical planes, demonstrating how flat and incomplete forms could bring energy to a space. Even in these initial works, he prioritized conveying volume within narrow confines over the depth of his pieces.

Eventually, he transitioned to three-dimensional sculptures, utilizing exposed welds to assemble pre-cut metal pieces into fluid and dynamic structures. In this approach, he drew inspiration from the aesthetic traditions of Russian abstract sculptors such as Antoine Pevsner, Vladimir Tatlin, and Alexander Archipenko. Lardera reached a pinnacle in his career with a prominent installation for the Grenoble Winter Games in 1986, following various worldwide sculptural commissions.

Throughout his career, Lardera also created numerous print editions, moving from collage lithographs to steel intaglio etchings that echoed his sculptural style. Today, his work is included in the collections of well-known institutions such as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the British Museum. His monumental sculptures can also be found alongside the architectural masterpieces of Mies van der Rohe in Germany and Frank Lloyd Wright in the United States.