Jean-Philippe RIGOTTI
Jean-Philippe Rigotti was born in 1970 in Savoie. He comes from a long line of stone sculptors in Italy.
After learning painting and engraving from his grandfather Edouard, a highly accomplished artist, he was trained in sculpture by his father Julien, who was awarded the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 1972 in the marble sculpture category.
He then focused on a discipline invented by his grandfather in the mid-1970s, who had the idea of developing a universe that would combine several artistic techniques: engraving on 23.6-carat gold leaf.
Today, Jean-Philippe Rigotti creates unique works of art: he has taken his grandfather's project and brought it to life.
His work is the result of twelve years of research and in-depth study of several techniques to achieve mastery of the skill.
Obsessed with achieving a minimalism that enhances the original beauty, he reclaims photographs.
He deconstructs them to better recompose them in a three-dimensionality that arouses even more emotion. The emotion of a look, a texture, a body, a skin texture. He exalts the senses thanks to the striking contrast between the brilliance of gold and the depth of black.
Although his monochrome works are reminiscent of daguerreotypes, his work was strongly influenced by the emotion of Caravaggio's chiaroscuro and the genius of Pierre Soulages, who confronts us with the power of black.
This is a technique exclusive to the artist, who remains the only one in the world to offer truly three-dimensional work on gold leaf.
