Villari: the Pop luxury of white gold

1998 marked a leap in scale and notoriety and was partly when the story started to take a unique turn. The American artist Jeff Koons became interested in the use of maxi-format porcelain and commissioned Villari to create two large sculptures. The first was a reinterpretation of a classical piece, Leonardo da Vinci’s St John the Baptist, famous for the iconic gesture of the saint’s hand which seems to address and communicate directly with whoever is looking at it. The second oozes Pop from every pore, and is a sculpture called Michael Jackson and Bubbles, which portrays the American star with his small chimpanzee painted in 24-carat gold. The leap in notoriety was immediate: in 2001, the Sotheby's auction house sold Jackson for 6.5 million dollars. The pieces made their way around the world's leading contemporary art museums, prime showcases for the company's savoir-faire. The technical challenge underlying the production of these works – over one hundred different pieces were put together to produce this structured work on a human scale - can justly be said to have been met. 

The arrival of the second generation heralded another metamorphosis, another shift in the story of Villari. Alessandra, Barbara and Leone, Silvia and Cesare’s children, are also designers, cultivate their own artistic interests and are familiar with the codes that mark out luxury in the new millennium. There is an awareness that, while the taste for the classic and the propensity for ornamentation continue to appeal to some types of market, others find porcelain more difficult to place. This has triggered a progressive process of renewal of the collections, as echoed by the involvement of international designers, brought in to rethink not only the decorative schemes, but also the very use of porcelain within homes with new rules for entertaining and day-to-day living. The predilection for the Baroque became diluted, and a new, more strictly design-related vision emerged, based on the articulation of a specific concept, capable of renewing itself collection after collection. 

The scale of application and the materials employed have also changed. Now with a powerful language all its own, Villari has broadened its horizons to include the world of interior design with the production of furniture under the Home Villari label. In addition to porcelain, the protagonists now include Murano glass, metal and leather, which take the form of tables and coffee tables, consoles, trolleys, even mirrors and chairs. The world of bathroom accessories is also well represented, as is that of fragrances, complementing Villari's broader definition of the meaning of space and hospitality.