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Giampaolo Babetto

Jeweller
Published: 08.03.2024
Giampaolo Babetto
Giampaolo Babetto


Bio

Giampaolo Babetto, born in Padua, Italy, in 1947, honed his craft at the Pietro Selvatico Art Institute in Padua and the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Since 1967, he has exhibited extensively across Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States. Notably, his creations grace the esteemed collection of the Pforzheim Museum. Presently, he resides and engages in his artistic endeavors in Arquà Petrarca (Padua).
Renowned as one of the most influential figures in the Avant-Garde goldsmiths' movement since the mid-1960s, Giampaolo Babetto stands as a distinguished veteran of the Padua School, profoundly shaping the landscape of art jewelry both in Italy and globally. Recognized as a versatile mixed media artist, he extends his creative talents beyond jewelry to encompass silver objects, furniture design, and architectural projects.
 

Statement

I identify myself with the jewellery I create. Every time it’s a new challenge, because I know that what I create must be a living object, not just something sitting in a window, and it has to appear even more beautiful when worn around a woman’s neck, her wrist or her fingers.
/Giampaolo Babetto

Giampaolo Babetto's artistic expression resonates with the essence of contemporary movements like concrete art, minimalism, kinetic art, and pop art, embodying a distinct, purist, and plastic aesthetic. His creations bear a hallmark simplicity that sets them apart instantly. Drawing inspiration from the architectural marvels of his native land, particularly Palladio's villas, Babetto finds poetic resonance in geometric forms. His jewelry stands at the forefront of innovation, featuring abstract elements, modular units, and ingenious linkages that imbue his pieces with a sense of architectural grandeur or sculptural finesse.

Babetto's preference for working with gold stems from its stable malleability and warm luster, which he masterfully combines with unconventional materials such as plastic, glass, and ebony. Delicately dusting the internal surfaces with velvet-like pigments in vibrant primary hues like reds and blues, or employing enamel and ancient niello-based techniques, he creates captivating contrasts and highlights. These materials serve to accentuate the increasingly pure and essential geometric forms that have become synonymous with the distinctive aesthetic of the Padua School.
 

Events      View / hide events

2024:
Meeting  05 Dec 2024 - 05 Dec 2024  Art Jewelry and Jewels on Auction at Quittenbaum Art Auctions.
Exhibition  14 Sep 2024 - 06 Jan 2025  Orizzonti d'Autore: Between Body & Soul.
Exhibition  02 Jun 2024 - 16 Jun 2024  Squaring the circle by Giampaolo Babetto and Johannes Nagel.
2023:
2022:
Award giving  07 May 2022 - 24 Jul 2022  Archeometra Lifetime Achievement Award by Orizzonti d'Autore.
Exhibition  07 May 2022 - 24 Jul 2022  Orizzonti d'Autore: Between Visions and Matter.
Meeting  07 May 2022 - 24 Jul 2022  Orizzonti d'Autore.
2017:
Workshop  04 Dec 2017 - 07 Dec 2017  Minimus by Giampaolo Babetto.
Exhibition  10 Mar 2017 - 07 May 2017  Private Confessions. The Drawings of Jewellery Artists.
Exhibition  09 Mar 2017 - 08 Apr 2017  Hommage to Manfred Bischoff.
2016:
Exhibition  02 Apr 2016 - 12 Sep 2016  Brilliant! The Futures of Italian Jewelry.
2013:
Exhibition  10 Oct 2013 - 15 Dec 2013  Sconfinamenti / Digressions.
2010:
Exhibition  05 Mar 2010 - 30 May 2010  Giampaolo Babetto. L’Italianità dei Gioielli.
2008:
Exhibition  09 Jul 2008 - 13 Sep 2008  Contemporary Jewelry Art of the Italian Avantgarde.

Publications      View / hide publications

Book:  Babetto. The Entity of Being. Jahn, Fred; Mennekes, Friedhelm; Nante, Andrea; Pedrosa, TherezaArnoldsche Art Publishers:  Stuttgart,  2022
Book:  Ring Redux. The Susan Grant Lewin Collection. Ilse-Neuman, Ursula; SCAD Museum of ArtArnoldsche Art Publishers:  Stuttgart,  2021
Book:  1990s Jewellery. The Hans Schullin Collection. Beer, SophieArnoldsche Art Publishers:  Stuttgart,  2017
Book:  Jewelry of Ideas. The Susan Grant Lewin Collection.. Ilse-Neuman, UrsulaArnoldsche Art Publishers:  New York,  2017
Book:  Private Confessions. Drawing & Jewellery. Maurer Zilioli, EllenArnoldsche Art Publishers:  Stuttgart,  2016
Book:  Contemporary Jewellers. Interviews with European Artists. Bernabei, RobertaBerg:  London,  2011
Book:  Giampaolo Babetto: L'Italianità dei Gioielli. Baumer, Dorothea; Hufnagl, Florian; Maurer Zilioli, EllenArnoldsche Art Publishers:  Stuttgart,  2011
Book:  The Padua School. Contemporary jewellery. Folchini Grassetto, GraziellaArnoldsche Verlagsanstalt GmbH:  Stuttgart,  2007