Massimiliano Pelletti
The beauty, the balance, the poetry are things that belong to everyone or almost everyone. If you can balance them in the right way, you can reach anyone.
-Massimiliano Pelletti
There is so much art that I love. As a child obsessed with drawing, I grew up filling notebooks and stacks of printer paper with sketches of the horses that roamed around the fields next to our house. I dreamed of being an artist. Later, visiting galleries in my teens, the new generation of British artists- YBA’s- were screeching unapologetically into the modern art scene and my head was turned from the great masters towards frozen busts made of blood, unmade beds, the flash of neon and the smell of formaldehyde. When it came to studying at university, I almost read philosophy with art history, considered archaeology and then classical fine art painting. Eventually, after a winding road studying something else entirely, I fell upon a multi-disciplined fine art degree that suited my ideology- break down those ivory towers! Get the art out to the people! I was lucky, my independent art school housed rebels and outsiders in an old monastery- a rowdy bunch encouraged into every discipline- why choose one? Learn to weld, get comfortable with print-making techniques, stretch your mind and capabilities until you find your own way. Those were halcyon days, I remember undertaking a tour of the British Isles with a generator strapped to the car roof, inflating an enormous soft sculpture in some pretty wild and unlikely locations, and fuelling my creative fire for land and public art in the process. My arms were covered in small circular burns from that generator for months afterwards- the hasty struggle to lift its red-hot weight back into the car while being chastised by local police for the umpteenth time (you’re not really supposed to install 30ft sculptures in the middle of roundabouts or public spaces). I truly hated that generator by the end of the trip and it did fall off the roof once onto a highway whilst driving but those are minor details, mostly relegated to the dim remembrances of youth.
Inevitably, life moves on, we grow and change, and we hone our tastes and approach to the world. Who doesn’t sometimes consider what they would do, if they had their time again? For me, it would still be art (or maybe ecology, or actually I have a long-list but that’s another story) but undoubtedly, I would choose stone carving. The mystery of uncovering shapes from stone and marble, the fragility of the material, the patience and skill required to understand the medium, the years of practice. Creating something solid and lasting out of something already so precious and ancient. When I discovered the work of Massimiliano Pelletti, it was a revelation to me. His celebration of the imperfections in the crystals and marble he works with resonates with me deeply, pretty much summing up my whole outlook on life. When I read that he studied philosophy it made perfect sense to me, and I liked him even more.
Growing up with a sculptor Grandfather in the land of marble in Pietrasanta in Tuscany, Pelletti learned marble-working techniques from a young age. Diverging from early years using traditional marble towards onyx, quartz and crystal, his work is completely set apart from his contemporaries. Inspired by the ancients but with a wholly original sense of self. If I could own just one piece of art, I would choose one of his sculptures. Actually, can I have two? I would like a Magritte too, please. With one eye to the future and one to the past, Massimiliano Pelletti’s work sits as comfortably in a modern art gallery as a classical museum. Great works of art give us as much food for thought as the best literature and poetry. Art speaks to us, lead us on journeys, provokes questions and tells us a truth. If we allow it to, art will transform us. What does a crystal bust with a gouged skull or an onyx head missing an eye say to me? Embrace your imperfections, and celebrate your differences. We are all here to uncover ourselves and discover our life’s journey. Much like these sculptures, if we can slowly reveal the cracks and fissures in our makeup, sit with them, and gently embrace them, we are on our way.
The artist says it best himself:
In antiquity, classicism represented the divine perfection and also man's ambition to rise to that perfection. In my work, I simply made this ambition more earthly, closer to us, to the contemporary man, with all its defects and its fragilities.
- Massimiliano Pelletti
Images Nicola Gnesi and the artist
