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Introduction: A Maverick From the Start
By Jacob Harmer, Lifetime Representative"I had to escape in secret because my father would have never approved of my choice. At 18, I ran away on a train destined for Florence to pursue the life of an artist"
- Arturo Di Modica
Late in 2012 I flew to Sicily to meet Arturo Di Modica, then 71 years old, to discuss acting as his first official art dealer. Looking through the airport crowds, it was impossible to miss the thick trademark beard of the man waiting to greet me. Like millions worldwide, I knew his iconic Charging Bull, but its creator was a mystery. Over time I came to realise that the sculpture was in fact an embodiment of Di Modica himself. Filled with strength and power, both leave you unsure in which direction they will charge next. And it is this unpredictability that characterised the way he premiered his masterpiece to the world.
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Life Story
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Charging Bull, New York (1987-89)
By Anthony Haden-Guest, Art Critic"My point was to show people that if you want to do something in a moment things are very bad, you can do it. You can do it by yourself. My point was that you must be strong"
- Arturo Di Modica
The Charging Bull was born in an ugly storm. “It was Black Monday,” Arturo Di Modica says. “The crash of ‘87. The big crash.” This was only a decade and a half after the young sculptor’s penniless arrival in New York, but now he was working out of his own five floor building on Crosby Street, SoHo, a crucial hub in the global art world, and had a network of collectors all around the world. So America had been good to Arturo Di Modica but America was now in shock and reeling. He felt he had to repay. How? No problem. He would make an artwork for the city.
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Charging Bull
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Il Cavallo
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Il Cavallo, New York (1988)
By Anthony Haden-Guest, Art Critic"After I installed the sculpture in Trump Tower, I got a phone call that people were complaining that they could see the horses balls so I said I was coming tomorrow with underwear for him"
- Arturo Di Modica
Arturo Di Modica owned horses while he was in Florence and made various horse sculptures throughout his career. In this he is being true to a rich tradition, making it clear that the horse has not been made irrelevant by another mode of transport in which the Italian eye has been dominant: the motorcar. We could begin with the four famous bronze horses of St Mark’s, Venice, though they are actually copper and were probably made in 3rd century Greece, but horses which pace, race or rear through the Renaissance include masterworks by Andrea Mantegna, numerous sculptures by Andrea del Verocchio and Benozzo Gozzoli’s Procession of the Magi.
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Public Press
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Arturo Di Modica, Sculptor of 'Charging Bull'
The New York TimesThe New York Times obiturary celebrating the life and art of Arturo Di Modica. Published during the week of his passing, the article looks back on his early years in Italy, to the illegal installation of Charging Bull then final monumental projects the artist was working on right up until the end.
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Outlaw History of Arturo Di Modica’s Crosby Street Studio
Curbed MagazineInterviewed by writer Christopher Bonanos in 1993, almost two decades the writer reflects on what stuck out most in his memory of Arturo Di Modica: the illegal construction of his 54 Crosby St studio. Di Modica has purchased the empty plot in the early 80's and with salvaged materials hand built a 4-level studio which became the epicenter of his work.
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