“One dies twice. To cease to live is nothing, but to cease to love and to be loved is an insupportable death” – Voltaire

Humanity’s wishful desire to achieve immortality seems vain and perhaps even futile. However, for those who are no longer with us, their longevity is proved by the endless love they continue to receive from the mortal world. Five years have already passed since the death of renowned Italian painter, Luciano Ventrone. At 79 years of age, Ventrone’s long and blissful life could be characterized by his dedication to painting the natural world. And while his physical presence has left us, the art world’s reverence for his creations carries on his legacy. This exhibition is a reminder of his surreal representations of a natural reality, one which he is no longer a part of. Legacy serves to ensure that Ventrone’s name is not forgotten. To cease to be loved is an insupportable death.

Luciano Ventrone was born in 1942, in Rome. At the age of five, he left Rome to live in Denmark with Lady Metha Petersen, a wealthy woman who developed his initial interests in architectural studies. Eventually returning to Rome, the young artist attended a high school for the arts, graduating in 1964. He joined the faculty of architecture to continue his studies, but, discontent with his endeavors, Ventrone left in 1968 and began his painting career experimenting with contemporary forms until eventually he became fascinated with nature and its natural beauty. His development of this realist abstraction technique resulted from advice he received in 1983, from famed Italian Renaissance art historian, Federico Zeri. In an almost surreal representation of nature, the artist has often spoken on this:

“The study of painting is not the mere representation of the object, but it is color and light: the right relationships between the two things give shape in space. The subject should not be seen as such but abstractly.”

After an extensive career, ceaselessly extending himself to natural form, the artist built a house in Collelongo where he continued his research of the natural world. After his death in 2021, his home became a museum dedicated to his life and passions. Over the last fifteen years, both Friedrichs Pontone and Pontone Gallery have worked closely with Ventrone and his estate, championing his artistry. And while his death in 2021 has reminded us all of our mortality, both galleries continue to honor his life, revitalizing his essence through the mastery of his practice.