Isabella Ducrot, La Grande Bella Terra

October 2023 – June 2024

Curated by Anne Pontegnie

Supported by Galerie Gisela Capitain

Every year, Cranford Collection invites an artist to create a special project for the spectacular link room designed by David Chipperfield. Each project is presented alongside a new exhibition of artworks from the Collection displayed throughout the house.

This year Cranford Collection has invited Italian artist Isabella Ducrot to conceive its project for the link room. Isabella Ducrot’s work is invested in breaking down hierarchies between the decorative and fine arts. Her art has grown from a deep fascination for old fabric, cloth and weaves, and their underlying patterns. For many years, Ducrot gathered an extensive collection of textiles from the countries she visited while travelling throughout Asia. Beginning her artistic career later in life, the fabrics she collected became inspirations and even part of her own artworks, finding a balance between expressive forms and respect for the material’s origins. Her vocabulary oscillates between repetitive patterns of dots and squares, the shapes and colours of the natural world, dancers and lovers, and everyday objects.

At Cranford Collection, Ducrot will present two monumental works conceived to wrap the architecture in a night garden. Delicately painted on parchment-like sheets of handmade paper, a horizontal work displays a landscape of flowers under the stars and moon framed by a frieze reminiscent of majolica ceramic, while the other piece is a triptych inspired by Chinese vertical mountain landscape paintings. The paper material is both extremely light and resistant, and the artist uses its undulated texture to give life to her dream-like garden, highly stylized and subtly organic. 

Photography: Richard Ivey