Raul Goldoni
(1919-1983)
An Animal Skull with a Horn, 1975
bronze
MG-4087

Croatian painter, graphic artist and sculptor Raul Goldoni graduated in painting in 1942 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb under Prof. Marino Tartaglia, and continued his studies in 1942-1943 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. He was also active in product and interior design.

In the 1960s Goldoni committed himself permanently to plastic mediums. He created series of glass objects for everyday use. As far as sculpture is concerned, he modelled free forms, rounded organic forms and figurative compositions which allude to crystallised animal and human figures. In his glass sculptures, he excelled in the purity and stability of form, and deliberately intervened in the interior of the mass of glass, the result of which are works that attract attention and interest not only by the rhythm and balance of their masses, but also by their intrinsic properties, such as transparency and reflection. By having carefully treated the surface of the volume of his glass sculptures, Goldoni filtered and regulated the flow of light through the depths of glass, the result of which is a powerful connection between his sculptures and space.

Goldoni was also successful in applying his personal sculptural poetics to sculptures he modelled in bronze. In other words, he achieved the same dynamism of light between the core and the edges of his sculptures in bronze as he did in his glass sculptures. A good example of this is his An Animal Skull with a Horn bronze sculpture from 1975.

Text:Tatijana Gareljić, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Ana Janković
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb