|
Nicola Simbari is
considered by many to be Italy's most important living artist. A
painter of semiabstract impressionist works; he is a stunning
colorist who favors brilliant tones, richly layered with a palette
knife. Like the great impressionists of a century ago, Simbari's
paintings are drenched in light and energy, but provide new
definition through his intensity of vision and dramatic technique.
Born in Calabria, Italy, Simbari was greatly
impacted by the natural setting of his Mediterranean world: the wide
sea, intense sky, and vivid flowers. As a young child, he moved with
his family to Rome where his father worked as an architect to the
Vatican. The City's Renaissance masterpieces and the artistic
treasures of the Sistine Chapel so moved Simbari that, before his
13th birthday, he decided to study art and enrolled at the Accademia
delle Belle Arti.
At 22, he opened
his first studio in Rome. Influenced by the sights and sounds of his
childhood, Simbari's early works featured gypsies, cafe settings,
fishing villages, and rustic scenes of the Italian countryside.
The youthful
artist knew success almost immediately, and within months of a
one-man show in London, he was awarded the coveted commission to
paint murals for the Italian Pavilion at the 1958 World's Fair in
Brussels. He solidified his place in the art world with his show "Le
Cirque," which skillfully reproduced the same excitement on canvas
as can be felt at an electrifying circus performance. The show was
highly acclaimed in Paris, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. "When
I paint, I'm like a writer," Simbari states, "I must have something
to say. My paintings are like entries in a diary because they are
all reactions to things I have seen or felt." |
.gif){kind=spacer}
Copyright © 2008 NYMuseum.com. All rights reserved.