Having erupted on the international marble sculpture scene with all the gentle force of someone who has chosen to “quarry poetry with the force of art” from his wonderful and muchloved white stone from the Apuane mountains, Francesco Cremoni is now living an intense season of creativity and rightly basking in his success. Having reached “the season of his fifties”, Cremoni’s recent works appear to confirm a talent that has seen him build, year after year, with industriously silent lyrical precision, a reserved artistic personality. Although anything but worldly, Cremoni is very much present wherever there is the opportunity to sculpt and create: from Syria to Germany, from Italy to Korea, in the complex world of stone sculpture, which has almost become a nature reserve of endangered species as far as sculptors working in marble are concerned, distilling his delicate but powerful sculptures with silent passion. Cremoni, as his glowing record demonstrates, is a success, both as a sculptor and as a teacher at the Carrara Academy, where he holds a much-appreciated course on marble. Francesco’s long career often makes me think of the history of sculpture in Carrara and its protagonists. As a young man Cremoni helped Somaini create his art: a working relationship not without its dialectic component which bore a close ressemblance to Pietro Tenerani’s historical link with Thorwldsen or Giuliano Finelli’s with Bernini. And as Cremoni,like his illustrious predecessors, reached his above-mentioned maturity, he evolved his own dialectic, sculpting works of absolute purity. To my way of thinking, and that of my readers, great care is needed to interpret the works of this local maestro. A man of marble, born and raised in this harsh land watered by the Carrione stream where the very air reverberates with the sound of mallets on rock wielded by generation after generation. Cremoni’s studio is right there in Via Carriona: that historical street where over the centuries hundreds of sculptors have carved their marble blocks… They are now rarely seen on this ancient street, but it is difficult not to imagine their reflection in the blinding sunlight. Now it is Francesco Cremoni’s sculptures which set off from Via Carriona to grace squares and exhibitions around the world, as it always has been and always will as long as there are men like him practising the ancient art of sculpture.
RIVELAZIONE, 2013, marmo statuario di Carrara RIVELAZIONE, 2013, statue in Carrara Statuario marble DANZA DEL DESIDERIO, 2013, marmo statuario di Carrara DANZA DEL DESIDERIO, 2013, statue in Statuario F Carrara marble StoneMagazine
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