The exhibition offered by the Grimaldi Forum features Willy Rizzo, a recognized and unique artist who combines two passions with equal talent: photography and furniture design. This exhibition is imbued with the Dolce Vita, showcasing seventy-five photographic prints and about twenty pieces of furniture.
A “star hunter,” he has had the most beautiful women pass before his lens. A “lover of pasta and coffee tables,” he has designed some of the finest furniture in Italy. It is Willy Rizzo in all his artistic forms who will be honored at the Grimaldi Forum.
Willy Rizzo began his career in Paris where he photographed stars and starlets for Cinรฉ Mondial, Point de Vue, and then Images du Monde. He covered the Nuremberg Trials and produced major reports, including one in Tunisia on the Mareth Line. In 1947, the English agency Blackstar sent him to the United States to “photograph what astonishes him”: from a $1 machine dispensing nylon stockings to drive-in cinemas. However, he preferred women and fashion and settled in Los Angeles.
Max Corre, with whom he had collaborated at France Dimanche, called him to announce that Jean Prouvost was setting up a major magazine in Paris, he returned and met Hervรฉ Mille. This marked the beginning of his journey with Paris Match, which continues to this day.
His report on Maria Callas inspired Hergรฉ who, in “The Castafiore Emerald”, created his character: the photographer from Paris Flash, Walter Rizzoto, who is both him and his friend Walter Carone.
In 1959, he became the artistic director of Marie Claire and collaborated with major fashion magazines including Vogue, where Alex Liberman asked him to work “with his eye.”
In 1968, he married Elsa Martinelli, moved to Rome, and began his work as a designer for his personal needs because, according to him, “the antique or Scandinavian furniture was neither comfortable nor simple enough.” Facing demand, he set up his workshops. But by the late 70s, the decline of Cinecittร and the rise of terrorism brought an end to his Roman era. The party was over. Willy sold his business and moved back to Paris, for which he was nostalgic.
Today he continues to design and still photographs the most beautiful women in the world, including his own, Dominique, who has given him three children.
