Wine & art, a bond made up with mutual inspiration and patronage which arrive until today

As one of the most fascinating sources of inspiration, wine has always been present throughout the history of art. However, since noble families who produce wine began commissioning artworks from the greatest artists of their time, up to today, when this long tradition of cultural patronage continues with more and more wineries entrusting contemporary art with the “universal message” behind their wine production, to preserve and transmit it (from Castello di Ama to Ceretto, from Ca’ del Bosco to Planeta, from Villa Amistà with the Byblos Art Hotel to Farina Wines, from Lungarotti to Tenuta Casenuove, from Antinori to Zaccagnini, from Feudi di San Gregorio to San Leonardo), the reasons have changed. If in past centuries, this meant showcasing the importance of the art of winemaking within one’s family history, as both a passion and a business, today, artists are asked to represent the connection wine has with the land, its communities, its history, and its culture, whose beauty producers across Italy strive to protect and promote. A “collection” of projects which is, at this point, very rich, regularly documented by WineNews, among which “Artisti per Frescobaldi” stands out as a pioneer, which, founded over 10 years ago by Tiziana Frescobaldi and curated by art critic Ludovico Pratesi, the initiative draws inspiration from the ancient tradition of patronage which saw the historic Tuscan Frescobaldi family support the work of renowned artists such as Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello since the Renaissance, supports art and its ability to represent and change present inspiring new generations, inviting young artists to create works that capture the “genius loci” of CastelGiocondo, the Frescobaldi Group estate in Montalcino, nestled in a natural setting of Brunello vineyards, but also woodland.
In recent years, “Artisti per Frescobaldi” project has evolved into a biennial award and later into a commission for site-specific works dedicated to the territory and the world of wine: this has resulted in a collection of twenty permanent installations displayed throughout the CastelGiocondo estate, along with a series of artist-designed labels for a limited edition of Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Ripe al Convento magnums. A collection, that, with the edition No. 7 of the award, welcomes two new contemporary artworks exploring the relationship between humans and the environment, created by Giulia Cenci (Cortona, 1988) and Sunmin Park (Seoul), artists from different generations and backgrounds, who both spent a residency period among the Tuscan hills, exploring nature and the wine-growing landscape, drawing visual and conceptual inspiration from it. And, if “Small Flower” by Giulia Cenci - whose work was recently featured at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, on New York’s High Line, and at the 2022 Venice Biennale - plays with the dialogue between natural and artificial elements, creating a complex, hybrid sculpture inspired by the post-Anthropocene world, Sunmin Park, meanwhile, cultivates a reflection on ecological themes and the multiple relationships between humans, nature, and architecture, expressed through the video “Pale Pink Universe”, a musical composition by Bojan Vuletic, the bronze sculpture “Bouquet Giocondo S 01”, and the drawing “Bouquet Giocondo D 01”. And, for the first time, “Artisti per Frescobaldi” also opens to collaboration with a prestigious Italian museum institution: the Mao Museum of Oriental Art in Turin, directed by Davide Quadrio, confirming the project vocation to engage with international artistic research and foster new fruitful relationships. Starting from November, 1st, Sunmin Park will be featured at Mao for the edition No. 3 of “Declinazioni Contemporanee” - “Contemporary Declinations” with the video installation “Pale Pink Universe” and a new series of drawings - permanently acquired by the Museum - which reflect the artist perspective on the wine-growing and agricultural landscape of CastelGiocondo, exhibited in the Chinese galleries in dialogue with the Museum permanent collection. “The aim of the project since its inception in 2012 - explains Tiziana Frescobaldi - has been to create a contemporary art collection inspired by the CastelGiocondo estate and, more broadly, by the world of wine and my family’s history. To do this, we rely on some of the most compelling voices of our time internationally, giving them complete creative freedom. We are interested in discovering how artistic language in all its forms can interpret and narrate the world of wine”.