Luigi Ontani
Luigi Ontani was born in 1943 in Vergato, near Bologna, and currently lives and works between Bologna and Rome. His work, extremely eclectic, defies categorization within a specific artistic movement; it expresses an independent spirit that traverses the currents of fashion. As Ontani himself states, “I am tautological, but also convinced of wanting to pursue a dissonant path compared to the roundabouts or travels of the art world. [...] I had chosen the literary, picturesque, or folkloric element; allegory, mythology, legend, and the grotesque were, from the beginning, fairly forgotten elements, discovered by my self as a curiosity, an archaeology to revisit, without taking a side or worrying about the constant dominance of that moment.”
His artistic output encompasses a wide range of mediums, allowing him to experiment and engage in the revaluation of craftsmanship and applied arts, particularly in materials such as papier-mâché, plaster, glass, ceramics, marble, and wood. In the development of his works, Ontani employs a consistent conceptual approach: he investigates the past, classical mythology, fairy tales, Christian tradition, art history, popular folklore, and both Western and Eastern thought, with the aim of extracting images, symbols, and icons that provoke resonances and connections inherent in the arcane of his thought.
Nothing is explicit; Ontani speaks through quotations, as seen in several photographs, sometimes retouched with watercolor, that evoke diverse cultures and places. He enriches his works with biographical elements, often featuring his own face, as in the bust found in the collection of Giuseppe Iannaccone, displayed in the collector's studio. The sculpture, mounted on a unique red wall, highlights the beauty and uniqueness of Il poeta ARTuromARTIni CechoVia, created in 2007 and originating from the collection of Claudia Gian Ferrari, a gallerist and collector who was a close friend of both the artist and the collector.
Through this work, Ontani pays homage to the Treviso sculptor Arturo Martini (1889-1947), presenting in a postmodern perspective two sculptures: Il poeta Cechov (1921-1922), with its head bowed on the left hand, and the celebrated amante morta (1921-1922), now located at Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan, thanks to a donation from Claudia Gian Ferrari. The marble face and hand are derived from casts of Ontani himself. Another portrayal of the artist is found at the base, surrounded by leaves of alnus (alders) and by a compass and mallet, tools typical of a sculptor.
The collection also includes L’Elefantino del Marchesino (2000-2007), a polychrome ceramic sculpture made at the Ceramica Gatti workshop in Faenza. This work serves as a tribute to the artist Filippo De Pisis. Ontani requested a considerable number of images, books, and monographs about De Pisis’s work from the Gian Ferrari Gallery for inspiration. The sculpture depicts an elephant, on whose back sits a nearly nude young boy in a yoga pose; his long blonde hair frames a familiar face, that of the artist himself, who adorns his head with a whimsical palette-shaped headdress, with brushes styled as feathers.
The soft cushion on which he sits is decorated with a myriad of eyes, a recurring symbol in Ontani’s works, alluding to clairvoyance made possible through the pineal or third eye. The back of the elephant is draped in a purple fabric covered in images reminiscent of stamps, miniatures of some paintings by Filippo De Pisis. The sculpture rests on a golden base, supported by two exuberant twisted columns that echo the shape of alder branches.