Antropoammonite 1^ e la sua traccia

The sculptures of the Antropoammoniti cycle of 1975, executed in pink Portugal marble, are a significant formal invention, new in Somaini’s career. They represent the metamorphosis into a plastic organism of a female pelvis and its bone structure. For this synthesis, the artist drew on the structure of the vertebra, whose rounded form also suggests rotating movement around a focal point, which the artist describes: “In the geometry of the block there is a zone of shadow, which becomes the central motif of the work: a large expressive hollow in which there nest soft, welcoming volumes, a clear allusion to the maternal womb.” The Antropoammonite is a form generating “matrix-sculpture” and “trace-sculpture”. From this work, in fact, the artist developed a series of sculptures following from the “imprint” or “trace” left by fossils, a hollow, shadowed zone. From the imprint, the movement of the planes that constitute the matrix is taken in positive relief. These sculptures represent the culmination of the anthropomorphic theme seen as the dramatic imagination of the human figure, which the artist would ultimately see as wrapped in bandage strips, contracted, tense, lined by a rough, tragic plasticity.