The Gallery: This Month's Featured Artist . . .
The Colorful World of Andrew Vicari
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European Artist of the Year, Vicari, who was famously christened "King of Painters, Painter of Kings" by Pierre Galante of Paris Match and dubbed "Marco Polo II" by the Chinese Ambassador in Paris, is making final preparations for a retrospective exhibition of 40 years of his work. Vicari is recognized as one of the world's most powerful painters. "His work is a celebration of the human spirit which he depicts with the intuition of a wizard and the perfection of a master", thus wrote the late Louis Pauwels in his biography "La Vigonade a Vicari". The last painter in the line of Goya, Rubens, Velazquez and Raphael, his works are found in major art collections and museums, both public and private, throughout the world. In portraiture, his works cover a whole spectrum of society from Kings, Princes, Princesses, celebrated notables and people from all walks of life. Vicari has recently been ranked 18th in a list of the 500 top earners in Britain for the year 2001 - twelve places higher than the Queen of England (24th) - according to a study by the Sunday Times. The ranking puts him top of the list of the most expensive painters in Britain. According to the study, Vicari is ahead of most artists in Britain including film stars and pop singers; Madonna (who is placed 11th), Sir Paul McCartney (17th), England Captain David Beckham (88th), fashion Designer Alexander McQueen (102nd), and the Prince of Wales (70th). Of the 500 personalities selected, Andrew Vicari, for the second year running, is the only British artist cited. Vicari has taken painting to a new frontier and it was he who after 14 centuries of non-figurative Art set a precedent in Arabia by introducing the human figure into official Islamic Art, the first occasion since the time of the Prophet Mohammed. The sixty works of "The Triumph of the Bedouin", commissioned by the King and Government of Saudi Arabia, took five years to complete and now adorn the prestigious King Faisal Conference Centre in Riyadh, one of the three museums devoted entirely to his work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He has brought Eastern and Western culture closer together. In China, where adoring crowds acclaimed him "Great Master", he was invited by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China to be the fourth Occidental artist to exhibit in Beijing, his precursors being Rodin, Miro and Chagall. He was also the first western artist to be honored by being officially invited to paint the great Chinese philosopher, Confucius. The exhibition included a triptych of portraits, including Confucius, Mao Tse Tung and the first Emperor of China, In Shi Huang, three of the most important figures in Chinese history. In St. Petersburg for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the city by Peter the Great, the Vicari "Vigonade of St Petersburg" celebrating the freedom of the city was unveiled in spectacular style. In front of an assembly of invited officials from a host of countries, including his friend the then Deputy Mayor Vladimir Putin, a portrait of the founder of communism was taken down by the Mayor, Anatoly Sobtchak, who exclaimed: "I am replacing Marx with Vicari". From Riyadh to Geneva, from London to Washington, from Dallas to Hawaii, from St. Petersburg to Beijing, his work has been universally acclaimed. He is even the official artist of the CRS (Compagnie Republicaine de Securite) in France. In addition, he is also the official artist of Interpol, where he has two large works on permanent display. These were especially commissioned for the inauguration of the Interpol World Headquarters in Lyons and unveiled at the opening ceremony in 1989 by the late President Francois Mitterrand. Vicari's major opus "From War to Peace in the Gulf: The Liberation of Kuwait" is a collection of over 225 marvelous oil paintings, depicting battle scenes, as well as portraits of World Leaders, and is the largest work to be created since long before Napoleonic times. Vicari left Paris for Riyadh on January 15th 1991, the day before the ultimatum given to Iraq by the international coalition, and went directly to the battlefronts to depict the scenes of the Gulf War for posterity. His genius in this particular branch of painting, which has never been rivaled, made Charles Freeman, U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, comment: "Vicari is the War's only official artist". In a ceremony in October 1995 at the Concert House Castle in Karlsruhe, Germany, he was presented with the prestigious "Prix Europeen des Beaux Arts". The Prize was given under the presidency of Madame Claude Pompidou and was awarded by the European Parliament and the Council for Cultural Excellence. On December 5th 2000, Vicari unveiled in Paris his latest work, the large triptych "La Vigonade de la Victoire des Motards de la Police Nationale Francaise", at the French Ministry of the Interior by the Director General of the French National Police, Mr. Patrice Bergougnoux, before a large assembly of French Police Chiefs, French notables and French Government officials. This large oil painting was commissioned to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the creation of FCWN (the Motorcycle Police Force of France). Maitre Andrew Vicari takes you and our other fellow BWW Society members on a personally-guided tour of his favorite paintings, presented for you here . . . |
Andrew Vicari, one of the great figurative artists of the century, was
discovered at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London by his
mentor Francis Bacon. Here, his professors and encouragers were Lucian
Freud and Sir William Coldstream. His closest friends and contemporaries,
in what is considered to be one of the Slade's great years, included Michael
Andrews, Euan Uglow, Victor Willing, Bernard Cohen and Craigie Atcheson.
Augustus John, who posed for him for several portraits, confirmed his status
as one of the great draughtsmen of the century.
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Tryptych of Mao Tse Toung, 1994-1995 (detail)
Tryptych created specially for Vicari Retrospective Exhibition, Grand Palais
des Beaux
Arts, Bejing, October, 1995. Organized by the Ministry of Culture of the
People's
Republic of China.
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Lune Rouge, 1977 "An almost final illumination advances me to my own personal summit" |
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Harlequins and the Dream of Jacob's Ladder, 1964
"The harlequins in my pictures are not just clowns. They are the smile at the
foot of the Cross." |
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Blue, 1970 "The disturber - towards a final liberation." |
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La Recherche du Garcon au Cheval, 1973
"The boy struggles with the life -force and nothingness is your ending." |
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Dans la Foret, 1968 "I wanted to call this painting 'murder' - recalling 'the dolce Terribilta' of Michelangelo. Innocence waiting to be devoured." |
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La Veille du Soleil, 1979 "To crucify the sun is to find God; to find God crucify the Son." |
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La Circassienne, 1986 "Apotheosis to woman in all her glory." |
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Le Champ de Pavots, 1970-1982 "This painting took me 12 years to complete. I never finish my pictures, but, like all cowards I abandon them, but I never ever forget them." |
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Il Pensiero Doloroso, 1986 "After the scream, and coping with the pain of thought." |
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Gypsy and Child, 1969-1970 "One of my 'Virgin and Gipsy' series of pictures painted in 1969 and 1970, at Chatsworth, Derbyshire and at my studio in Westminster, London; commissioned by London Screenplays Ltd., Dimitri de Grunwald and Kenneth Harper." |
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Tetes de Chevaux, 1983 "My favorite equestrian work. Prelude to my forthcoming 'Genesis of the Arabian Horse' now in progress." |
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Augustus John, 1960-1961 "It was only when Augustus John agreed to sit for his portrait at his house in Fordingbrige, and at his demand that I draw and not paint him, that I began to draw once more. I had only concentrated on oil painting at Francis Bacon's insistence, since leaving the Slade. And it was to be, between many sessions of 'shove halfpenny' with John that I rediscovered my ability as draughtsman. For this , I have only Augustus John to thank." |
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Le Prophete, 1974 "On my first visit to Beirut I discovered Khalil Gibran whose 'The Prophet' was to have a significant influence on my oriental subject matter at the time." |
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Palais a Djeddah, 1978 "This is one of my favorite paintings. Part of a series of 60 paintings of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia designed for the spectacular King Faisal Conference Centre in Riyadh, commissioned by the King and Government of Saudi Arabia, and which I completed in 1978." |
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Le Crepuscule Bleu, 1983 "The word 'dusk' has not as mystical a meaning as the French 'crepuscule'. My 'crepuscule' are dusks bathed in a menacing blue light, preludes to a Fall; (Cythera) abortive voyages to a cythera never reached, unresolved revolutions of the spirit, trying to pierce eternity." |
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La Lune Sorciere, 1976 "Part of the great David Lloyd Kreeger collection in Washington D.C., 'La Lune Sorciere' is about the disturbance of solitude and the sorcery of profound silence. Always the moon." |
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Le Reveil, 1969-1970 "One of my 'Virgin and Gipsy' paintings 'The Awakening' - Model, Joanna Shimkus, then, truly one of the most beautiful women in the world. Now married to Sydney Poitier, she was the inspiration and model for several 'Virgin and Gipsy' paintings." |
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H.S.H. Princess Caroline of Monaco, 1981 "The first of several portraits I created of Princess Caroline, for which she posed in July 1981, in my studio in Monaco. The portrait is now hanging in the Palace of Monaco as part of the Collection of her father Prince Rainier." |
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Whitsun Procession, 1963-1964 "One of a series of Pentecostal Processions painted in Wales and inspired by Goya's 'Burial of the Sardine' and Courbet's "Burial at Ornans'." |
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La Vigonade aux Chevaux Arabes, 1982-1983 "One of the first of my Vigonades, a parable of Genesis." |
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La Femme de l'Aube, 1985-1986 "The 'Odalisque of the Dawn' is a constant theme in my work and inspired my blue -'l'Azur Mystique' from 'Les Fleurs du Mal' of Baudelaire." |
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L'Aixoise, 1986 "All the women in my work are part-Electra and part-Odalisque. Morning becomes them both, these seated sirens beckoning with their smiles of melancholy." |
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La Remontee du Soleil, 1984 "As an Etruscan by blood and ancestry I have long held an obsession with the mysteries of Death and the worship of the Sun, until now a private ceremony." |
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Fay Compton, 1970 "My homage to the force in the wisdom of old age - the re-discovery of lost innocence." |
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Les Veilleurs de la Mer, 1974 "My 'Watchers' waiting for the final illumination. The 'Watcht' and the 'Waits' play an important role in my work." |
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La Vigonade de l'Oppopulisme, 1987 "A new philosophy for reason, art and culture for the 21st century. It is in the people, of the people, and for the people. A parable for great creativity." |
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La Nomade, 1983 "The baroque sensual spirituality of Louis IV and Bernini's Saint Theresa were the sources of my inspiration at the time, culminating in 'The Vigonades de la Concorde' which I began and finished at the Hotel de Crillon in Paris. I used 'La Nomade' as the poster for my retrospective exhibition at the Petit Palais Museum in Geneva, Switzerland 1984." |
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La Vigonade du Millenium, 1994 "A Pyramid of Humanity, Symbolic Expression of Spiritual Enlightenment". "This picture, full of concealed symbols, I created at my studio in Monaco for my great retrospective exhibition at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Bejing, organized by the Chinese Ministry of Culture in October 1995." |
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La Vigonade du Millenium, 1994 (Detail) |
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La Vigonade des Quatre Odalisques, 1999 " 'The Four Odalisques' like 'The Four Horseman' are recurrent themes throughout my work. In their limbo of melancholy, the peturb us with their symbolism." |
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La Princesse en Larmes, 1989-1991 "The last of my Princess Caroline of Monaco works. I finished the painting on the day that her husband was killed, quite by chance. From tragedy legends are born." |
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Portrait du General de Gaulle, 1994 "This is the center of a Triptych of General de Gaulle, created for the 50th Anniversary of his creating the French C.R.S. Police Force, and unveiled by President Mitterrand at Versailles 1994." |
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Arabesque: La Dame Blanche, 1999 " 'La Dame Blanche' is one of the best variations on my 'Electra' Greek mythological themes. She is the natural mother of all lost Odalisques." |
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Les Roses Noires, 1999 "The Black Rose is almost an anachronism, yet fascinates me. The rose always occurs in my work and with the poppy is my favorite flower." |
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Odalisque of the Apple, 1999 "The Odalisque as Sphinz, holding the Apple of Knowledge." |
The Rape of Kuwait, 1991-1992
"I consider this oil painting the most important in my Gulf War series of
works, 'The Liberation of Kuwait'." |
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A Spanish Enigma, 1999 "The content of painting - is painting. Nothing has to be explained. The painting exists within itself." |
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La Vigonade de l'Angoisse, 1999 "The ultimate of my seated Odalisques, key to my other Vigonades. The mystery - a combination of Sybil and Prophet in the silences of Chekhov." |
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L'Enigme des Cavaliers de la Nuit, 2000 "The night riders on their return to the Styx - All havoc left behind." |
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Avant l'Annonciade, 1999 "Annunciation is an important theme in my works. This is the last work I have created with this theme and which I consider the finest. It is about revelation and wonder and not the lost of innocence." |
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Enigma of the Watch Enigma, 1999 "My own personal quest of the Great Enigma as yet never resolved." |
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L'Enigme des Quatre Cavaliers, 1999 "One of my recurrent themes, 'The Four Horsemen' and the Styx. My greatest 'Enigma' and its inevitability." |
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Albert Einstein, 1999 "Einstein has always fascinated me, particularly since I lived for some time with his great-niece Lorenza, in a studio-apartment, in Rome in the 60's. She was misguided in that, she saw in me the embodiment of Franz Kafka, God forbid. Letters from Uncle Albert frequently arrived from America." |
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Crepuscule 1907 a La Meccque, 2001 "The last of my Arabian paintings, speaks for itself, the focus of Islam, holds a fascination for all Christians like myself." |
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L'Hurlement Andrew Vicari holding 'L'Hurlement', one of his stolen oil paintings - On Interpol's Stolen Works of Art List. |
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© 2003-2011 The Bibliotheque: World Wide Society, Andrew Vicari