Skip to content

Isabella Ducrot

For this year’s installment of the ADAA Art Show, Petzel is pleased to present a solo booth of new collage works by Isabella Ducrot, including the debut of a new series, titled “Suprise,” from the Rome-based artist. Beginning to make art in her fifties, Ducrot, who turned ninety-three in June, has only achieved international recognition for her works on paper in the last half decade. This past summer, the Consortium Museum in Dijon hosted Ducrot’s first international solo museum exhibition, titled Profusione. Over the past four decades, Ducrot has developed a singular practice grounded in a profound respect for woven fabrics and paper. Having cultivated an expansive collection of rare textiles–some spanning centuries in age and bearing global origins, from Turkey to Tibet—Ducrot applies rich pigments atop their surfaces, often by hand, in patterned motifs and pastel colors.

Surprise

Ducrot presents five works from her new “Suprise” series, marking a new chapter for the artist, who has developed a distinct approach to make these works. Using written pages and ephemera, penned by others, Ducrot sews these writings directly into the collage. Long estranged to time, found in the artist’s drawers and cabinets, Ducrot revitalizes these pages by centering the beauty of their calligraphy, beyond the contents of the material itself.

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XXXIV

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

58.5 x 33 inches

148.6 x 83.8 cm

(ID 24/036)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XXXIV

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

58.5 x 33 inches

148.6 x 83.8 cm

(ID 24/036)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XLIII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/046)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XLIII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/046)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XXXIII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/035)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XXXIII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/035)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XLVII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/050)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XLVII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/050)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XLIII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/046)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XLIII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/046)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XXXIII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/035)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XXXIII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/035)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XLVII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/050)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XLVII

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

40 x 27 inches

101.6 x 68.6 cm

(ID 24/050)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XXXVI

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

58.5 x 33 inches

148.6 x 83.8 cm

(ID 24/038)

Isabella Ducrot

Surprise XXXVI

2024

Pigment, paper, fabric, China ink, and collage on textile

58.5 x 33 inches

148.6 x 83.8 cm

(ID 24/038)

Inquire

“In Ducrot’s hands, these texts were transformed from one thing into another, just like the textiles that she once gathered from far-off places.”

—Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker

Tendernesses & Bella Terra

This presentation includes works from both her “Tendernesses” and “Bella Terra” series, highlighting Ducrot’s interest in “the possibility of touch” and a lyrical sensitivity to the natural world, respectively. Ducrot’s former series captures couples entangled in crumbled embraces, framed by luminous halos, slivered moons, and conjoined atop patterned grids. Across her “Bella Terra” works, Ducrot’s delicate lines and vibrant flushes of color reveal the majesties of the natural world to the viewer, conjuring themes of myth, travel, and cosmic awe.

Isabella Ducrot

Tendernesses on Grill VIII

2023

Pastel, pigment, paper, and collage on Japan paper

78 x 52.75 inches

198 x 134 cm

(ID 23/022)

Isabella Ducrot

Tendernesses on Grill VIII

2023

Pastel, pigment, paper, and collage on Japan paper

78 x 52.75 inches

198 x 134 cm

(ID 23/022)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Tendernesses on Grill XI

2023

Pastel, pigment, paper, and collage on Japan paper

78 x 52.75 inches

198 x 134 cm

(ID 23/025)

Isabella Ducrot

Tendernesses on Grill XI

2023

Pastel, pigment, paper, and collage on Japan paper

78 x 52.75 inches

198 x 134 cm

(ID 23/025)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

15 x 20.5 inches

38 x 52 cm

(ID 24/010)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

15 x 20.5 inches

38 x 52 cm

(ID 24/010)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

15 x 20.5 inches

38 x 52 cm

(ID 24/003)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

15 x 20.5 inches

38 x 52 cm

(ID 24/003)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

18 x 23.5 inches

45.7 x 59.7 cm

(ID 24/006)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

18 x 23.5 inches

45.7 x 59.7 cm

(ID 24/006)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

18 x 23.25 inches

45.7 x 59.1 cm

(ID 24/007)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

18 x 23.25 inches

45.7 x 59.1 cm

(ID 24/007)

Inquire
Isabella Ducrot

Tendernesses on Grill VIII

2023

Pastel, pigment, paper, and collage on Japan paper

78 x 52.75 inches

198 x 134 cm

(ID 23/022)

Isabella Ducrot

Tendernesses on Grill VIII

2023

Pastel, pigment, paper, and collage on Japan paper

78 x 52.75 inches

198 x 134 cm

(ID 23/022)

Isabella Ducrot

Tendernesses on Grill XI

2023

Pastel, pigment, paper, and collage on Japan paper

78 x 52.75 inches

198 x 134 cm

(ID 23/025)

Isabella Ducrot

Tendernesses on Grill XI

2023

Pastel, pigment, paper, and collage on Japan paper

78 x 52.75 inches

198 x 134 cm

(ID 23/025)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

15 x 20.5 inches

38 x 52 cm

(ID 24/010)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

15 x 20.5 inches

38 x 52 cm

(ID 24/010)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

15 x 20.5 inches

38 x 52 cm

(ID 24/003)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

15 x 20.5 inches

38 x 52 cm

(ID 24/003)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

18 x 23.5 inches

45.7 x 59.7 cm

(ID 24/006)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

18 x 23.5 inches

45.7 x 59.7 cm

(ID 24/006)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

18 x 23.25 inches

45.7 x 59.1 cm

(ID 24/007)

Isabella Ducrot

Bella Terra

2023

Pigment, pencil, and China ink on China paper

18 x 23.25 inches

45.7 x 59.1 cm

(ID 24/007)

“You can make a drawing of two people in love, but the tenderness doesn’t always come out. I’m trying to make tenderness come out, tenderness and the possibility of touch.”

—Isabella Ducrot