Marlon Brando plays Marlon Brando. Wild, rebellious, brash. An angel-faced sex symbol who represented an epoch and marked a new departure, from the post-war years on, with his intense performances as a professional actor. Many of his films are masterpieces, others are considered as mediocre, but in all of them there is him, there is Marlon Brando with his unforgettable personas.
This is true of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Johnny Strabler in The Wild One, Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront. Then there are Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now and Paul in Last Tango in Paris.
Parts and personalities that enabled him to win Oscars, collect nominations and covers on Time Magazine. In 1966 Andy Warhol created a screenprint from a production still for The Wild One: a memorable portrait, which would become the symbol of a generation, and one of the most famous images in the entire history of cinema, depicting Marlon Brando on his Triumph Thunderbird.
Sculpting a timeless icon, a giant of the calibre of Marlon Brando, was not a simple task. Placing him alongside another icon, a motorbike, made it a monumental challenge. The image of the rebellious and dissolute 1950s youth is inextricably linked to Marlon Brando, totally irresistible and at the same time impossible. An imposing statue for its size, and for the importance of the legend that it represents. Welcome to the roaring rebel years when men and motors defined an age.
