ArtistToppi, Bernardino

Artist Years1936-living

Artist NationalityAmerican, Italian

TitleLa Barca

Yearca. 1970

MediumPainting > Oil

DimensionsCanvas: 8.8 X 13 inches

Accession NumberRC1469

NotesThe eldest of three children, Bernardino Toppi was raised in an artistic environment. His father Mario introduced him early to the traditional techniques of fresco painting and this family immersion led him, while he was studying law, to make it his profession.

He exhibited in Rome from 1958, but the desire to come and work in Paris tormented him. He fulfilled his wish in 1960 and showed his first works at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture held at the Museum of Modern Art . Jean Jansem noticed him, appreciated his frescoes and encouraged him to persevere. The advice he took would open the doors of the United States to him the following year in Philadelphia . Between 1961 and 1985, galleries across the Atlantic would show his work, relayed by others in Japan who would exhibit it from 1969.

A solitary and discreet artist, avoiding honorary events, his work will nevertheless be distinguished throughout his career. Winner of numerous awards, he participated in his 90th solo exhibition in 2016. Present in French museums, he is also regularly present in the main French exhibitions ( Salon d'Automne , Salon Comparaisons , Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts , Salon du dessin et de la peinture à l'eau ).

Critical reception:
"This painter, by immobilizing his anonymous characters in time, could have been one of the artists of Pompeii or a miniaturist, a 15th century fresco painter . He is himself, with a desire for an absence of perspective, with planes of matte blacks, ochres, yellows, pinks and grays punctuated with fine iridescence. A subtle craft in half-tones where clear and impersonal atmospheres quiver […] A primitive vision of characters stubborn in their modesty, an astonishing painting not attached to any school and in this Toppi is a great artist." - Guy Vignoht
(source: wikipedia.org)