Giuseppe Rivadossi, Bosco-Città, 1976, Wood

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Description

Giuseppe Rivadossi’s work occupies the meeting point between sculpture, architecture and the domestic environment. Born in Nave, near Brescia, in … Read more Giuseppe Rivadossi’s work occupies the meeting point between sculpture, architecture and the domestic environment. Born in Nave, near Brescia, in 1935, he grew up around his father Clemente’s carpentry workshop and developed a practice centred on wood and the idea of inhabiting space. By the 1970s his sculptures were gaining wider recognition, including presentations at the Milan Triennale in 1974 and the Biennale de Menton in 1976.

Bosco-Città, meaning ‘Forest-City’, was created in 1976 and carved from linden wood. A broad rectangular frame surrounds a rounded, projecting central field, giving the work the presence of an architectural relief. Across this curved surface, Rivadossi constructed an abstract landscape from incised lines, stepped passages and small rectangular openings. Their arrangement suggests buildings, paths and cultivated terrain, yet the composition can equally be read as a forest seen through an architectural vocabulary.

Bands of closely spaced grooves follow the curvature of the wood and change orientation throughout the composition. Smooth areas interrupt these carved sections, setting up a rhythm between open surfaces and concentrated passages of texture. Near the lower edge, small projecting forms resemble entrances or gateways and introduce a sense of human scale. Seen from the side, the relief becomes more pronounced: the central landscape swells forward from its surrounding frame before meeting the substantial horizontal base.

This treatment relates closely to Rivadossi’s wider concern with the human habitat. from the early 1960s, he sought to create domestic spaces and structures that combined practical purpose with a more poetic understanding of dwelling. Linden wood, a material found elsewhere in his sculptural and furniture practice, lends itself particularly well to the carved and gouged surfaces associated with his work.

The result sits somewhere between an imagined settlement and a natural topography. Bosco-Città works particularly well as a standalone wall sculpture, where changing light emphasises the shallow carving, curved volume and warm tone of the timber.

The sculpture is in good vintage condition, with minor marks, scratches and variations to the surface consistent with its age. These traces remain visible without disturbing the composition, and the carved details are well preserved. The left upper corner is slightly bend. 

The reverse bears the handwritten title “Bosco-Città”, the date 1976, Giuseppe Rivadossi’s name and an address in Nave, Brescia, Italy. The original purchase invoice is present. This piece has an attribution mark,
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