Giuseppe Ducrot Biography
Giuseppe Ducrot (1966 - ) was born in 1966 in Rome, where he currently lives and works. His artistic career originates from his practice in the technique of tempera painting and drawing. Sources of inspiration for the works created in the first years of his activity are the classical art of imperial Rome, Hellenistic sculpture, but also the scenographic inventions of the Baroque, reinterpreted in the light of an unprecedented contemporary sensitivity, in order to construct elaborate mythological figures and saints. His sophisticated operation of cultural, conceptual and provocative synthesis at the same time, culminates with the creation in 1996 of the bust of the young Marcus Aurelius for the façade of the Borghese Museum in Rome and of the Herm of Ninfa for Piazza Capo di Ferro, also in the capital . In the year of the Jubilee, 2000, he created an entire liturgical decorative program for the cathedral of Norcia, creating the ambo, the throne, the altar and the statue of San Benedetto (now in Spoleto); while with the series of pastels made for the film directed by Marco Tullio Giordana, I cento passi, he achieved a certain popularity even among non-experts. 2003 was a crucial year for Ducrot's artistic career: the city of Cassino commissioned him to build the monument to San Benedetto, inaugurated two years later. The Roman artist thus engages for the first time with the typology of monumental sculpture designed for a public space, deepening the critical discussion on the functionality of the work, conceived in close relation to the landscape or architectural context. It is the prelude to participation in the 54th Venice Biennale, where, inside the Italian Pavilion, he presents a work taken from the Knights on Sarcophagi series. He will later be involved, together with other protagonists of the Italian contemporary art scene, in the restoration of the cathedral of Noto. Alongside his activity linked to private and public commissions, for some years Ducrot has been experimenting, in full creative autonomy, with technical and formal solutions by working with materials such as ceramics and glazed terracotta.
