Publisher's Synopsis
Luciano Ventrone (1942-2021) was discovered in 1983 by Federico Zeri, who defined him as the "Caravaggio of the 20th century" and encouraged him to apply his talent to still life. Thus began his long research into various aspects of nature, as he captured more and more details which are otherwise almost invisible to "eyes bombarded by millions of images", such as those of people of our era.
In each of his exhibitions, Ventrone's paintings are seen by tens of thousands of people who come to be astonished. He established himself as a true master of figuration, displaying an extraordinary virtuosity with few precedents in the history of art. He is a painter of hyperbole, and indeed, more than hyper-realistic, his iconic still lifes - renowned in all five continents - are hyperbolic, exaggerated, and baroque.
Over the decades, his work has commanded the attention of critics and art historians, including Federico Zeri, Giorgio Soavi, Roberto Tassi, Achille Bonito Oliva, Vittorio Sgarbi, Marco Di Capua, Antonello Trombadori, Edward Lucie-Smith, Angelo Crespi, Beatrice Buscaroli, Evgenia Petrova and Victoria Noel-Johnson.
One year on from his death, in collaboration with the foundation that bears his name, the General Catalogue of Luciano Ventrone's works has been published. By identifying the Master's authentic works over more than fifty years of painting, the monograph will surprise his admirers, revealing pictorial periods and cycles rarely exhibited or published before now, with genuine "finds" coming from private collections around the world.
