Isabella Ducrot

Naples ITALY
1931

Artist and writer, for over four decades Isabella Ducrot has developed a body of work deeply rooted in her extraordinary and enduring passion for textiles, which occupy a central place both in her pictorial practice and in her writings. The result of extensive travels across Asia and Eastern Europe – Russia, Turkey, China, India, Tibet, Afghanistan – her collection of antique fabrics, dating from the 9th to the 20th century, has become a constant source of study and inspiration.

In her works, executed on rare papers with mixed media – ink, watercolor, pastel, collage – materials are treated as pure matter, capable of revealing structure, rhythm, and the relationship between color and light. Recurring motifs such as landscapes, vases, teapots, intertwined figures, or checkered cloths are repeated until they themselves become subject and protagonist of the image: a language that resonates like a prayer, a breath, or a heartbeat, reflecting a conception of repetition not as ornament, but as the emotional and expressive core.

Her work has been presented in major solo exhibitions, including: Le Consortium, Dijon (2024), Museo della Civiltà, Rome (2024), MAXXI Taormina (2023), Art Basel Unlimited, Basel (2022), San Giuseppe alle Scalze a Pontecorvo, Naples (2021), Spazio Parlato, Palermo (2018), Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples (2015), as well as two significant solo shows at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome (2008 and 2014).

She has also exhibited with numerous international galleries, including Galerie Gisela Capitain (Cologne), Sadie Coles HQ (London), Petzel Gallery (New York), STANDARD (Oslo), Capitain Petzel (Berlin), Belenius (Stockholm), and Galerie Mezzanin (Geneva).

Ducrot participated twice in the Venice Biennale (1993 and 2011).

Alongside her artistic practice, she is the author of numerous publications, including: I ventidue luoghi dello spirito (2022, Quodlibet), Women’s Life (2021, Quodlibet), La stoffa a quadri (2018, Quodlibet), Fallaste Corazón (2012, Il Notes Magico), Suonno (2012, La Conchiglia), La matassa primordiale (2008, Nottetempo).

In 2024 she created the stage and setting for Dior’s SS24 Collection at the Musée Rodin in Paris, invited by Maria Grazia Chiuri. That same year she was the subject of a portrait by Rebecca Mead in the Profiles section of The New Yorker, entitled An Artist Flowering in Her Nineties.

In 2025 the documentary Tenga duro signorina, directed by Monica Stambrini, was released in cinemas.

Isabella Ducrot lives and works in Rome.

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