Arturo Di Modica

Arturo Di Modica (January 26, 1941 – February 19, 2021) was an Italian-American sculptor, widely known for his Charging Bull sculpture. His figurative art was primarily in the medium of bronze, showing increasing modernist influences as his career progressed.

Henry Moore referred to Di Modica as "the young Michelangelo" in his lifetime.

Early life Arturo Di Modica was born in Vittoria, a small town in the province of Ragusa, Sicily, on January 26, 1941. His father, Giuseppe, owned a grocery store and his mother, Angela, was a homemaker. As his father did not approve of him becoming an artist, Di Modica ran away from home at the age of 18, taking a train to Florence to pursue a career in sculpting.

Upon arrival in Florence, he enrolled in the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and attended courses in the Free School of the Nude for a few years. To support himself, he worked various jobs, including one in the x-ray department of a hospital and one as a mechanic in a local garage.

Career Di Modica had his first major show of rough abstract bronze castings at Villa Medici in 1968. Crosby Street would become his creative center, where he lived, worked and hosted lively art parties and events.

Il Cavallo, Lincoln Center (1988) During the 1970s, Di Modica's focus was on abstract sculpture, often balancing opposing materials into a single work. However, this began to change in the early 1980s, when his focus turned to the equine form. A 1984 polished bronze horse on display in Trump Tower was followed by Il Cavallo, an almost 10.5 ft depiction of a horse biting its own tail. On Valentine's Day 1988, Di Modica delivered the sculpture – wrapped in a red sheet with the message "Be my Valentine NY Love AD" – to Lincoln Center on the back of his Ferrari.

Charging Bull (1987–1989)

Di Modica conceptualized the Charging Bull sculpture following October 19, 1987, when Black Monday hit American financial markets. He spent the next two years creating the 16 ft bronze in his Crosby Street Studio, financing the $350,000 cost himself, conceiving of it as a symbol of the power of the American economy, which he felt he had benefited from after his move. The sculpture was then cast using a local foundry, after which Di Modica and his colleagues spent the next few nights watching police patrols on Wall Street, in order to move and present the sculpture in a guerrilla manner. Before dawn on December 15, 1989, they arrived, only to find that the city had installed a 40 ft Christmas tree during the day; he simply told the group to "drop the bull under the tree – it's my gift."

While in conversation with art critic and writer Anthony Haden-Guest, Di Modica emphasized that he thought of Charging Bull as a symbol "to show people that if you want to do something in a moment things are very bad, you can do it. You can do it by yourself. My point was that you must be strong." Adweek described Fearless Girl, depicting a girl standing in a self-confident pose, as "staring down the 28-year-old Wall Street "Charging Bull"".

Di Modica contested the placement, deeming Fearless Girl to be an "advertising trick"; The New York Times described him as being "wounded" by the sculpture's placement, quoting him viewing the placement as being "[her] there attacking the bull", and his attorney Norman Siegel complained that the juxtaposition had "transformed [Charging Bull] into a negative force and a threat."

Bund Bull (2010)

Di Modica created the Bund Bull in April 2010, with it being unveiled on The Bund in Shanghai on May 15, 2010. It is long and tall, and was intended to be a Chinese cultural parallel to Charging Bull. The tone of the bronze in the sculpture is reddish, and the figure of the bull leans to the right.

Value

In the mid-2000s British businessman Joe Lewis bought the original Charging Bull statue for an undisclosed sum. A condition of the sale was that the statue stayed at Bowling Green. Lewis also commissioned the remainder of the sculptures within the edition, which had yet to be cast, and they are on display at several of his properties. In 2014, it was reported that Di Modica had been offered $12 million for a 16 ft platinum bull but the deal was never finalized. In October 2018, the first major work by Di Modica went to auction at Phillips London. The 6 ft polished bronze version of Charging Bull was the first in an edition of eight and marked "1987–89". It sold for £309,000 ($405,000). His representative has confirmed that 4 ft sculptures have been sold for up to $496,000 as early as 2013. Not long after, Di Modica embarked upon two new projects simultaneously: the School of the New Renaissance and Wild Horses. The School of the New Renaissance is a 12-acre sculpture school in his home town of Vittoria. Di Modica believed it would become an international attraction capable of drawing in tourists from all over the world and helping the local economy. Wild Horses was an ambitious project: two 140 ft bronze horses straddling the Ippari River. Shortly before his death and despite his poor health, Di Modica had finished the 40 ft prototype.

Death Di Modica died from cancer on February 19, 2021, in his birthplace of Vittoria, Sicily. The day of Di Modica's funeral was declared an official day of mourning by Vittoria's municipality.