Word: nivola
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Constantine Nivola, who has been working on a part-time basis in the Design Workshop for the past two years, has been appointed Director of an expanded workshop program, Jose Luis Sert, Dean of the Graduate School of Design, announced last night...
Activity will begin in earnest this coming fall when Nivola assumes his full time duties. The post is not entirely a new one, but the director will be acting in an official capacity for the first time...
...molding just a thin surface of geometric shapes Nivola is able to keep the sculpture light and at the same time project it easily into large dimensions. "My dream," he says "is to make sculpture as big as buildings." Because he does not favor mere ornament or decoration, the relation between his sculpture and architecture is very close. Nivola aims at making his sculpture a functional element of architecture itself; perhaps solving architectural problems, but at any rate growing together with the building. Thus sculpture like the free standing bas-relief of sand "The Hermits" (pictured) can stand alone, serve...
...selection of Nivola's work at the Design School is rather scanty. It is, however, bolstered by photographs of commissioned sculpture and drawn studies. The two types of sculpture represented are the bas-relief panels, and isolated pieces of curved or jagged forms built up block by block to suggest human figures or abstract themes. Nivola's block-sculpture is organically interrelated and stylized. There is a certain dullness in the texture of the concrete, especially when combined with smooth, anonymous geometric forms. He has tried to create more interest by marking the surfaces but in terms of whole figures...
...Nivola's sand reliefs suggest comparison with Egyptian friezes both in technique and design. His modern use of plastic elements and abstract design have the same qualities of solemnity and simplicity; the concern for the essential; the regularity of the whole; and the flat streamlined look of their Egyptian counterparts. The most successful architectural use of the wall relief so far are the murals in the Olivetti showroom in New York where Nivola worked from the beginning of the stores construction with the architects. They show most clearly the influences of which he speaks: "Sardinian prehistoric constructions and sculptures, traditional...