Ristorante Frescobaldi London has embarked on a partnership with Mayfair-based art gallery ContiniArtUK: the restaurant is showcasing regularly changing exhibitions featuring some of the gallery’s leading artists, among them Paolo Vegas, Mario Arlati and photographer and ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov, whose images have been exhibited at museums and galleries around the world.
From 23 April, to mark a new exhibition at ContiniArtUK by Milan-born artist Omar Hassan, the restaurant will also be displaying works by this acclaimed young talent who uses spray paint as both a material and a sculptural object. (pictured above is one of Hassan’s pieces – Glove Save the Queen.)
Ristorante Frescobaldi’s stunning design, with its oak panelling and illuminated circular shelving stacked with wine, will provide an arresting setting for these important artworks, and an exciting counterpoint to the gallery’s no less striking, but more minimalist, backdrops.
Collectors and patrons of the arts
This collaboration with its neighbour is a natural progression for the family behind Ristorante Frescobaldi. Aside from being one of Italy’s leading wine producers, the Frescobaldi have been collectors and patrons of the arts since the Renaissance.
The family famously traded wine for works of art with Michelangelo and in the mid-fifteenth century, Stoldo Frescobaldi commissioned Filippo Brunelleschi to build the Basilica of Santo Spirito next to his palace in Florence. Later, in the mid-seventeenth century, Bartolomeo Frescobaldi appointed the legendary Lorenzo Lippi to paint his family portraits. More recently the Artisti per Frescobaldi, a contemporary annual art award, opened a new chapter in the relationship between the family and the arts.
The interiors of Ristorante Frescobaldi London reflect this heritage, dominated as they are by huge Commedia Dell’ Arte-inspired ceramic murals commissioned from Turkish artist Sedat Girgin.
Ristorante Frescobaldi London, 15 New Burlington Place, Mayfair, London W1S 2HX
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ContiniArtUK
Opened in May 2014, ContiniArtUK is a 5,000 square foot gallery space set over two floors in the heart of Mayfair on New Bond Street. The gallery exhibits both contemporary and modern art and enjoyed an extremely successful first year with exhibitions by South American artist Julio Larraz; the late and much famed Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj and photographer and ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov. The latter marked the first time examples of Baryshnikov’s photography had been shown in the UK, and offered a fascinating insight into the creative approach of one of the greatest dancers of our era. Other artists represented by ContiniArtUK include Mario Arlati, Fernando Botero, Teresa Emanuele, Enzo Fiore, Enrico Ghinato, Robert Indiana, Fabrizio Plessi, Sophia Vari and Giuseppe Veneziano