Africa

Edoardo Villa (1915-2011) is a pioneering figure in the story of South African art. His tall, muscular forms in bronze and steel played an important and often very public role in modernising the language of South African sculpture. His enormous output, the product of a remarkable work ethic, coupled with his creative experiments with volume and abstraction saw Villa’s work routinely selected to represent South Africa on international exhibitions throughout the 1950s and 60s. Amongst that rare class of artists whose careers never flagged, Villa continued to produce bold sculptures and public commissions well into old age. Often remarked upon for his prodigious energy, at the time of his death, at age 95, Villa had produced an ambitious body of work numbering over 1000 works. His work is widely represented in numerous important public and private collections.