Guido Dettoni della Grazia
{{Short description|Italian sculptor.}}
{{Infobox artist
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| name = Guido Dettoni della Grazia
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| image = GD FOTO WIKI.jpg
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| birth_date = 1945
| birth_place = Milan
| nationality = Italian
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| known_for = Tau, MARIA
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File:Escultura de Guido Dettoni della Grazia al Museu Diocesà de Tarragona 01.jpg
Guido Dettoni della Grazia is an Italian visual artist and sculptor of sacred works. He has developed a following among pilgrims and private collectors who have collected his art since the 1960s.{{Cite book |last=Kordiuk |first=Ihor |url=http://archive.org/details/student1974decem830unse |title=STUDENT |date=1 December 1974 |publisher=Ukrainian Canadian Students' Union (SUSK) |pages=5}}{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1979 |title=Terra Aranesa |url=https://archive.org/details/terra-aranesa-n5-1979/page/12/mode/2up?q=%22guido+dettoni%22 |journal=Museu Publicaciun Etnulogic de'ra Val d'Aran |volume=5 |pages=12 |via=Internet Archive}} His Tau sculpture is in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy, and it and MARIA have been featured in guide books and sites such as Lonely Planet Umbria,{{Cite book |last1=Franzon |first1=Anita |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3i_EAAAQBAJ&dq=%22guido+dettoni%22&pg=PT168 |title=Umbria |last2=Carulli |first2=Remo |date=26 May 2023 |publisher=Lonely Planet |isbn=978-88-592-8921-0 |location=Italy |pages=270 |language=it}} Rick Steves' Italy,{{Cite book |last=Steves |first=Rick |url=http://archive.org/details/rickstevesitaly20000rick |title=Rick Steves' Italy |date=October 4, 2005 |publisher=Avalon Travel Publishing |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-56691-727-8 |pages=438}} and TripAdvisor.{{Cite web |title=Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Rose. Mostra Maria, Assisi |url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187905-d649191-Reviews-or20-Chiesa_di_Santa_Maria_delle_Rose_Mostra_Maria-Assisi_Province_of_Perugia_Umbr.html |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Tripadvisor |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=I came upon this exhibition by chance - Review of Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Rose. Mostra Maria, Assisi, Italy |url=http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187905-d649191-r70174806-Chiesa_di_Santa_Maria_delle_Rose_Mostra_Maria-Assisi_Province_of_Perugia_Umbria.html |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Tripadvisor |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Assisi an Exhibition you must see - Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Rose. Mostra Maria, Assisi Traveller Reviews |url=http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g187905-d649191-r7268672-Chiesa_di_Santa_Maria_delle_Rose_Mostra_Maria-Assisi_Province_of_Perugia_Umbria.html |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Tripadvisor |language=en-GB}} MARIA has been installed permanently at the Church of Saint Sulpice in Paris,{{Cite web |title=Saint Sulpice, Paris - Exhibition 2004 - MARIA by Guido Dettoni della Grazia |url=https://maria.tk/exhibitions/saint-sulpice-paris-2004/ |access-date=2024-03-19 |website=MARIA |language=en-US}} the Church of Santa Maria Delle Rose in Assisi,{{Cite web |title=Santa Maria delle Rose's Church in Assisi - MARIA by Guido Dettoni della Grazia |url=https://maria.tk/assisi/santa-maria-delle-roses-church/ |access-date=2024-03-19 |website=MARIA |language=en-US}} and major churches in Austria (Jesuit Church of Innsbruck), the Czech Republic (Church of Our Lady of the Snows, Prague),{{Cite web |title=MARIA by Guido Dettoni della Grazia {{!}} Scoop News |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0204/S00042/maria-by-guido-dettoni-della-grazia.htm |access-date=March 19, 2024 |website=Scoop Culture, New Zealand}} France (Biennale of Contemporary Sacred Art),{{Cite web |title=2023 Artists – Biennale of Contemporary Sacred Art |url=https://biennale-bacs.com/index.php/2023-artists/ |access-date=2024-03-19 |language=en-US}} Germany (Old Saint Nicholas Church, Frankfurt),{{Cite web |title=Alte Nikolaikirche, Frankfurt am Mai - Exhibition 2001 - MARIA by Guido Dettoni della Grazia |url=https://maria.tk/exhibitions/alte-nikolaikirche-frankfurt-am-main-2001/ |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=MARIA |language=en-US}} Italy, Portugal, Singapore, and Spain.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZtEAQAAIAAJ&q=%22guido+dettoni%22 |title=El Cultural |date=February 2002 |publisher=Edita Prensa Europea S.A. |year=2002 |language=es}}
Early life and education
He was born in Milan, Italy, in 1945 to Maria della Grazia, a sculptor, and Franco Dettoni, an entrepreneur and inventor.{{Cite web |last=Catti |first=Alex |date=15 May 2017 |title=Sculpting for Peace with Guido Dettoni [at Hofstra University] |url=http://www.iitaly.org/node/51698 |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=iItaly.org |language=en}} He has a brother, Luca, and a sister, Parisina. As a child he played in the park at Milan's Castello Sforzesco, and his engagement with mud near a fountain inspired his first hand sculptures.{{Cite book |last=Modica |first=Ilene and Gary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U84uEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22guido+dettoni%22&pg=PA162 |title=Our Italian Journey |date=20 November 2020 |publisher=Boston Harbor Press |pages=162 |language=en}} What he calls "gameplay and joy" led him to create mud shapes that appeared and disappeared in his hands as he named them, and this hand-mold style continues in his work to this day in his style, "Handsmatter."{{Cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Maureen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PxOfEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22guido+dettoni%22&pg=PT125 |title=Gather the Fragments: My Year of Finding God's Love |date=2023-03-07 |publisher=Franciscan Media |isbn=978-1-63253-424-8 |language=en}}
Dettoni attended a Jesuit school, Charles Borromeo, in Milan. One day when he was 14, he read the story of the Greek philosopher Bias of Priene in Cicero's Paradoxa Stoicorum. When Bias of Priene was asked why he was empty handed when fleeing the destruction of his city, he replied: omnia mea mecum porto (All that's mine I carry with me).{{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Nell Porter |date=July–August 2012 |title=Omnia Mea Mecum Porto: "All that's mine I carry with me" gains popularity |url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2012/06/omnia-mea-mecum-porto |journal=Harvard Magazine}} Dettoni refers to this as his revelation.{{cite web |last=Dettoni della Grazia |first=Guido |title=Omnia Mea Mecum Porto |url=https://www.neshergallery.com/guido-dettoni-della-grazia/guido-dettoni-studio/ |access-date=19 March 2024}}
Career
He moved from Italy to Germany at age 15, finding a job in a factory in Düsseldorf and studying with artists, working in traditional pencil before moving to color studies. In the 1960s he left Germany for Austria, and then spent time in Spain and Venezuela, settling for a time at the Art Workshop in Caracas.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-stAAAAYAAJ&q=%22guido+dettoni%22 |title=Inside the Vatican |date=1993 |publisher=Urbi et Orbi Communications |volume=10 |location=Vatican City |pages=23}}{{Cite book |last=von Eichborn |first=Vito |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=seOMDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22guido+dettoni%22&pg=PT63 |title=Mein Mallorca |publisher=mareverlag |year=2013 |isbn=978-3-86648-363-7 |location=Hamburg, Germany |pages=21 |language=de}} He refers to his unique sculptural style as "Handsmatter," which he developed in the 1970s.{{cite web |last=Webb |first=Jennifer |title=Guido Dettoni della Grazia's Maria in Santa Maria delle Rose in Assisi |url=https://www.italianartsociety.org/2019/06/guido-dettoni-della-grazias-maria-in-santa-maria-delle-rose-in-assisi/ |access-date=19 March 2024}}{{Cite web |title=Guido Dettoni Sculpture Australia |url=https://www.maggiem.com.au/guidodettoni |access-date=2024-03-19 |website=Maggie M. |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Webb |first=Jennifer D. |date=30 June 2019 |title=Guido Dettoni della Grazia's "Maria" in Santa Maria delle Rose in Assisi |url=https://italianartsociety.tumblr.com/post/185959297840/guido-dettoni-della-grazias-maria-in-santa |access-date=19 March 2024 |website=IASBlog (Italian Art Society)}} He created his first images of MARIA in 1995 with wax from Puebla, Mexico. He first exhibited this work in Barcelona in January, 1998.