Baroque and Contemporary

The life of Mattia Bonetti stands as a testament to the vast creative potential of ambiguity, uncertainty, paradox, and duality-and absolute refusal to be one thing when it is possible to embody a multitude of possibilities simultaneously. His work exemplifies a certain strand of postmodernism that is both practical and theoretical; it embodies a philosophy of instability and witty subterfuge–a celebration of the principal of both/and rather than either/or and the quality in which everything, even identity, stays fluid. The combination of this philosophy and a dedication to the highest and most traditional standards of French classical workmanship, found within the ateliers of artisans and trained apprentices, results in an oeuvre whose inspiration (and perhaps insolence) is matched by its formal integrity. This ambiguity might even be traced through Bonetti’s own biography, from his homeland of the Ticino region, which incorporates the bravura exuberance of Italy and the rigor and integrity of Swiss culture, to a childhood in the sixties, surrounded by both the authenticity of traditional antiques and the radical experiments of the era. But apart from such weary design tropes as “zeitgeist” and “upbringing,” what Bonetti ultimately embodies is the sheer visceral pleasure of the artist, the creative imagination let loose, regardless of whether the results are to be hung upon a wall or tethered to domestic use.

Born in Rome in 1966, Giuseppe Ducrot is the leading Italian ceramicist of his generation. His family heritage dates back to a French ancestor who worked construction on the Suez Canal in the 19th century and died of cholera in Palermo, Italy, leaving a widow and a son. The latter would later found Studio Ducrot, celebrated in the 20th century Italian decorative arts for its Liberty style furniture, a variant of Art Nouveau. Giuseppe Ducrot showed a talent for drawing at an early age, holding his first exhibition at age 14, then studying at the painting studio of Giovanni Colacicchi and learning sculpture from Vito Cipolla, who trained him in traditional methods and materials. A virtuoso of classical sculpture techniques, Ducrot has spent much of his career creating religious iconography in the form of marble monuments, busts, and other elements under the direction of the government of the Catholic Church in the Vatican. His talent for both figurative and ornamental styles has guided his distinctive approach to ceramics, which melds Greek and Roman influences with a riotous Baroque expressionism, often glazed with a signature shade of yellow. His ceramic furniture and decor pieces are lush with embellishment, boasting gravity-defying asymmetrical curves, executed with the self assurance of a vastly skilled technician with an exhaustive grasp of art historical styles. The casual mastery on display in Ducrot’s design works places them firmly into the sphere of the contemporary, where an experimental gesture can coexist timelessly alongside the masters of the mythological realm. Ducrot is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters of the Virtuosi al Pantheon, one of the academic honorary societies under the direction of the central governing body of the Catholic Church. He has created public commissions for the Vatican at several locations including the Basilica of Santa Maria deli Angelinas, the Noto Cathedral and the Basilica of Saint Peter. In addition, he also does commissions for private clients.