by dan pine
staff writer
Judaica artist Luigi Del Monte called the compliment one of the best he had ever received: A critic once termed his work “the antiques of the future.”
Raised amid the artistic glories of Florence, Del Monte has seen his work included in the permanent collections of museums like the Skirball in Los Angeles and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
The Italian artist has a foothold in the Bay Area as well, with a 25-piece exhibition of his Judaica now on display at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
Del Monte takes traditional Jewish ritual objects –– menorahs, kiddush cups, mezuzahs –– and applies his training as a structural engineer to create his own original designs.
His Chanukah menorah resembles a modern-day suspension bridge, his silver Kiddush cup is like a scale model of a daring new skyscraper.
“My designs are really very modern,” he says. “I hate to copy the past, because I think we have to go forward. But I wanted to do things in continuity with the past. There is always this tradition.”
For Del Monte, that tradition goes back many centuries in Italian Jewish life. His logo is the Del Monte family crest dating from the 16th century.
“My family goes back [in Italy] 2,000 years,” he adds. “The Jewish community in Rome is the oldest in the world with continuity. Some of my ancestors are from that community.”
Though his family wasn’t religious, it was steeped in the unique Jewish Italian culture, distinct from Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions. He was named for a grandfather who perished in Auschwitz. “My family was very proud and involved in the Jewish community,” he says. “My father and mother were on many boards.”
Del Monte, 46, credits his grandmother, an art collector, with instilling in him an appreciation of art. Of course, growing up a stone’s throw from the Uffizi Gallery and the Ponte Vecchio, it’s hard not to fall under the spell of the Florentine masterworks.
He started collecting Judaica at age 16, but took a long detour before launching his own art career. Trained as a structural engineer at the Polytechnic Institute in Milan, Del Monte did not make his first work of art until 1998 when he fashioned a sterling silver menorah to replace a legendary family heirloom lost in the Holocaust.
“I always liked to make little things with my hands just for fun,” he recalls. “The Jewish Museum [of Florence] saw the piece and right away wanted one. I had three pieces in museums in one month. I said to myself, ‘You know what? I’m doing this!’”
That first arched menorah, produced in a limited, numbered edition, is now part of the permanent collection of Chicago’s Spertus Museum. New York’s Museum of Modern Art has included Del Monte Judaica in its holiday catalogue. His Shabbat candlesticks won the Grand Prize of the 2002 Altman Judaica International Competition.
But the bulk of his business these days is from private clients, including many in the Bay Area. “I really love commissions,” he says, “where I can put together my ideas and other input.”
Though his JCC exhibition ends this month, he has enjoyed his time in the Bay Area, starting with a reception in his honor, hosted by patron of the arts Roselyne Swig. Del Monte will be on hand at the JCC Sunday, Dec. 17, to meet with visitors. His Web site is www.luigidelmonte.com.
From here it’s back to his Milan studio and, no doubt, future command performance somewhere in the world. It amuses Del Monte to find himself a modern wandering Jew, as an artist in demand.
“I am going to the same places I went to before [as a structural engineer],” he says, “only now they are asking for my artwork. Same person, two different things.”
The Judaica of Luigi Del Monte is on display at the JCCSF, 3200 California, S.F., where the artist will be available to meet with collectors and discuss his work from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m Sunday, Dec. 17.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California