Born in Lugano to a Swiss mother and an Italian father, Roberto Ruspoli grew up in Rome. At eighteen, he left Italy to study at the School of Visual Arts in New York. From a young age, Ruspoli was fascinated by drawing and painting: "For as long as I can remember, I have always drawn. When I cried as a child, my mother would give me paper and pencils to draw, it was the only thing that calmed me." In New York, he began exhibiting his work for the first time, meeting some of the most influential figures in the New York art world of the 90s. He particularly cites the influence of his teacher, Michael Goldberg, one of the best-known abstract expressionists in the U.S., alongside Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
After five years in New York, Ruspoli returned to Europe, first to London and then to Paris, where he decided to settle. His first solo exhibition in a gallery in Saint-Germain-des-Prés was a success: "My artistic language is very French; culturally, I feel very close to France," he explains.
Among his influences, he mentions choreographer Pina Bausch: "In 1999, I performed in 'O Dido' in Rome, which profoundly impacted me. There is a real connection between dance and drawing. When drawing, one creates a continuous, uninterrupted line on a very large surface, similar to how a dancer interacts with the space around them. For me, it's almost meditative; you have to stop thinking and learn to let go, otherwise you lose the magic. I love spontaneity." Ruspoli is inspired by Cocteau, as well as Picasso and Rothko, for their use of color and abstraction.
His aesthetic, with figures drawn in profile, is undoubtedly influenced by his childhood in Rome and his studies in Classics.
The mural format, widely used in Pompeii and Herculaneum, requires a certain boldness to paint directly on walls. "I like to live surrounded by paintings. When you work directly on the walls," says Ruspoli, "there is no room for error. This type of painting gives me adrenaline; it's a completely different sensation."
It is in his studio, in the heart of the 14th arrondissement of Paris, that Ruspoli prepares his projects, where he has recently started painting on canvases and using more complex pigments.
In 2018, interior designer Fabrizio Casiraghi commissioned Ruspoli for his first public project: "Bibliothèque bohème" for AD Intérieurs, for which Ruspoli designed a gigantic fresco covering the entire ceiling. Since then, Fabrizio Casiraghi has called upon Ruspoli for several residential projects and, recently, for the frescoes in the newly redesigned Parisian restaurant Drouant: "I greatly appreciated working in such a prestigious space. My inspiration came from 'In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower' by Marcel Proust. I chose to work in blue, with the idea of combining lines and marks."
Roberto Ruspoli is a unique artist whose work intertwines with dance, history, and abstract expression, marked by a deep connection to French culture and influences ranging from Pina Bausch to Picasso. His work, which transitions between drawing and mural painting, reveals a constant quest for spontaneity and meditation in the creative process, making him a prominent figure in the contemporary art scene.