About the artist

Edoardo Villa (1915–2011) was a prominent South African sculptor of Italian descent who worked primarily in steel and bronze. Born in Bergamo, Italy, he studied at the Andrea Fontini Art School and began his sculpture studies in Milan before being conscripted into the army at the outbreak of World War II. His first experience of South Africa was as a prisoner of war in 1942. After his release, he chose to stay in South Africa to pursue a career as a sculptor.

Villa's artistic evolution saw him transition from traditional heads and figures in the 1940s to a style that embraced both stylized figuration and structural abstraction. A central theme in his work is the universality of humanity. Although many of his sculptures might appear entirely abstract at first glance, they are fundamentally rooted in figurative concepts.

Villa passed away in Johannesburg at the age of 95.