Costantino Nivola

Costantino (also known as Antine, in Sardinia, or Tino, in the US) Nivola was an Italian sculptor, architectural sculptor, muralist, designer, and teacher.

Born in Sardinia, Nivola had already started his career when he fled Fascism for Paris in 1938, going to the U.S. in 1939. His major sculptural work is abstract, large-scale architectural reliefs in concrete, made in his own sandcasting and cement carving processes. These were erected in and on American buildings between the late 1950s and early 1970s. Creatively busy and while remaining active in Italy, Nivola also taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Columbia University, UC Berkeley, and elsewhere.

The Nivola Museum in Orani, Sardinia is dedicated to his life and sculpture, and hosts the largest collection of his smaller scale work.

The Sardinian town of Ulassai decided, in the early 1980s, to rehabilitate its neglected municipal laundry building dating from 1903. It was turned into an open-air contemporary museum with a number of artists represented - Maria Lai, Luigi Veronesi, Guido Strazza. Nivola's contribution, a sculptural sound fountain, was completed in 1987 as his final work.

Nivola's public work includes:

sgraffito exterior mural wall, Gagarin House I, Litchfield, Connecticut, with architect Marcel Breuer, 1952

interior sand-cast relief wall, Olivetti showroom, Fifth Avenue, New York City, with architects BBPR, 1953 (razed)

exterior panel for the William E. Grady CTE High School, Brooklyn, New York, 1957

Untitled, an interior cast-concrete mural of 132 panels in the former Covenant Mutual Insurance Company, 95 Woodland Street, Hartford, Connecticut, with Sherwood, Mills and Smith, architects, 1957

over 2000 cast-concrete panels for the exterior of McCormick Place Exposition Center, Chicago, for Shaw, Metz & Associates, 1959 (destroyed 1967)

Untitled, a cast-concrete abstract exterior wall for the Mutual Insurance Company, Hartford, Connecticut, with Sherwood, Mills and Smith, architects, 1960

18 polychrome cast stone horses and an 80-foot sgraffito mural wall, for the Stephen Wise Towers housing development play area, with architect Richard G. Stein for the New York City Housing Authority, 1964

20 concrete panels for the Connecticut Post Building, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1966

monument to poet Sebastiano Satta, Nuoro, Sardinia, 1966

Family of Man, two cast-concrete abstract bas-reliefs with forms suggesting family groupings, entry to the Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson architects. Building, 1962; sculpture, 1969

Dedicated to the American Secretary, 14 abstract panels of sand-cast steel-reinforced concrete in the lobby, with a companion free-standing figure in the courtyard, Continental Bank, 400 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1970

33 sculpted panels on the history of communications theme, Janesville Gazette Building, Janesville, Wisconsin, 1970

work at the Palazzo del Consiglio Regionale (House of the Regional Council), Cagliari, with architect Mario Fiorentino, 1987

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023