Encounter with colour

A large steel sculpture, Encounter with Colour (1990) is a work by South African Artist Edoardo Villa (1915-2011). The artist donated the work to the University of Pretoria in 1990. Encounter with Colour is installed on the lawn in front of the Old Arts Building where the University of Pretoria Museums are located. Encounter with Colour is near four meters in height and features leave like shapes in green. The work is almost human-like, but also resembles a plant like form. The University of Pretoria has one of the most extensive Villa collections of this notable South African sculptor, born in Italy. Villa worked primarily in steel and bronze and his works incline toward Abstraction and Cubism. Short biography: Edoardo Daniele Villa was born in 31 May 1915 in Bergamo, Italy. Here he studied at the Andrea Fortini Art School under Minotti, Barbieri and Lodi, his studies brought home to cities like Milan and Rome. In 1939 Edoardo Villa was conscripted into the Italian Army and wounded in Egypt at the battle of Sidi Barrani during the Second World War in 1940. Villa was taken prisoner and was subsequently brought to South Africa as a prisoner of war and interned at the Zonderwater Prisoner of War (POW) Camp near Pretoria. Villa was finally released in 1947 and remained in South Africa where he practised his art as a sculptor. Villa adopted his new country and became one of the most noted and accomplished abstract sculptors of his time. In 1965, Villa married Claire Zafeirakou who was his companion until she passed away in November 2010. Edoardo Villa lived in Johannesburg until his death on 1 May 2011.