Edoardo Villa

• Name — Edoardo Villa • Birth Name — Edoardo Daniele Villa • Born — 31 May 1915 • Birthplace — Bergamo, Italy • Died — 1 May 2011 • Place of death — Johannesburg, South Africa • Training — Andrea Fontini Art School • Movement — Abstract art cubism • Works — The Knot, Cape Town Confrontation, Johannesburg Thrust, University of Pretoria • Awards — Honorary Professorship University of Pretoria

Villa was born in Bergamo, Italy and he studied at the Andrea Fontini Art School. In 1937 due to a shortage in work Edoardo Villa volunteered for the Italian Army and studied to become and officer. He went to Spain as part of the Italian Army to take part in the Spanish Civil War but the war ended before he was deployed. He was qualified as a Captain and was recalled to serve in the World War II. By 1940 he was posted to North Africa, On 9 December 1940, the night before the Battle of Sidi Barrani on a scouting mission where he was injured and captured by the English. In 1941 he was shipped to South Africa where he then spent the next four years at the Zonderwater prisoner of war camp. Zonderwater was opened in February 1941 and by the end of 1942 and held 63 000 prisoners under the care of Colonel H.F. Prinsloo. Villa sculpted, Prinsloo’s bust in 1944 which is on display at the South African Military History Museum in Johannesburg. After his release, Villa remained in South Africa where he continued his vocation as a sculptor.

Villa started work with conventional heads and figures and changed to work on stylized abstractions. His work includes abstract explanations of the human condition but retains some figurative concepts. Villa's work has a strong cross-cultural synthesis which involves the Italian and the African. It is clearly informed by the cubism of Picasso (who had discovered African art in Paris at the Trocadero). Villa gave an interview in which he said, “After being a prisoner of war in South Africa I decided to stay and start my career because of the opportunities available for the youth, the ‘open space’ as opposed to the ‘closed’ life of a continental. Everything in Europe I felt had been done, questioned and exhausted. Here, in Africa, I felt I had the opportunity to explore... If anything could sum up my fundamental concern in art, it is that of the human and the individual – the human condition …. Museums are marvellous but human participation, physical proximity and tactile engagement are more important. ”