Isabella Ducrot (b. 1931, Naples, Italy) is an artist and writer with a career spanning four decades. Ducrot’s oeuvre is deeply rooted in an extraordinary and enduring interest in fabrics, that is central to both her pictorial works and writings. Sourced during extensive travels over the course of her life, Ducrot has amassed an exquisite collection that spans centuries and bear origins from across Asia and Eastern Europe – including Russia, Turkey, China, India and Tibet. She considers these fabrics as an art form in and of themselves, to which she has dedicated herself to many years of focussed study and views essential to her education. Employing diverse media – including pencil, pastel, ink and watercolour, which she applies to rare papers – her works compress an array of cultural references, ranging philosophy, folklore and textile weaving. At both intimate and expansive scales, her work reflects a fascination with repetition, form, and colour, informed by the rare textiles in her collection. Ducrot lives and works in Rome.
