Nicoletta Ceccoli. Scary Fairy Tales
For more than two decades, Nicoletta Ceccoli has been working as an illustrator of children’s books in collaboration with American, British, Italian, French and Taiwanese publishers. In 2001, she received the prestigious Andersen Prize as best illustrator of the year.
What immediately catches the eye in the artist’s works showcased at Erarta Museum is the doll-like beauty, tenderness, and youth of her characters. Ceccoli’s girls demonstrate a peculiar mixture of bloodthirstiness and meekness. However, the longer one scrutinises these lovely features, the clearer it becomes that all pictures are shot through with a kind of ruthlessness inherent in traditional fairy tales. The beheaded hare, the sugary eye plucked out of a cake, the ginger man with his head bitten off – all this was done by the pretty protagonist. The latter can be likened to a piece of liquorice candy with its alluringly bright wrapping but startlingly sharp taste.
What immediately catches the eye in the artist’s works showcased at Erarta Museum is the doll-like beauty, tenderness, and youth of her characters. Ceccoli’s girls demonstrate a peculiar mixture of bloodthirstiness and meekness. However, the longer one scrutinises these lovely features, the clearer it becomes that all pictures are shot through with a kind of ruthlessness inherent in traditional fairy tales. The beheaded hare, the sugary eye plucked out of a cake, the ginger man with his head bitten off – all this was done by the pretty protagonist. The latter can be likened to a piece of liquorice candy with its alluringly bright wrapping but startlingly sharp taste.