BRUNO ZUPAN
b. 1939
Bruno Zupan, born in Slovenia in 1939, has spent his life in the pursuit of light. Upon completing his studies in Zagreb, Croatia, he immigrated to Paris in 1962 where he enjoyed la vie boheme whilst finding his artistic voice. In 1964, he traveled to the United States and became an American citizen in 1969.
Preferring to paint en plein air, rather than in his studio, he has frequented locations such as Mallorca, Venice, and Paris, when choosing places that sustain his love and quest for beautiful light. It does not matter if he is depicting a bucolic vista, the primal growth of flowers upon a stucco wall, hackneyed footprints on an old dirt path, or the golden hues of a Venetian sunset. All of these places owe their beautiful renderings to Bruno's observance of light and how he manifests his deep emotional relationship with each subject.
His freedom of expression is perhaps best described by art critic Ed McCormack, who states "The real magic is in the paint surface itself, with its energetic bravura strokes, splashes, splatters, and drips forming a unified statement, as active, alive, and visually autonomous as an Abstract Expressionist work by de Kooning or Diebenkorn – yet simultaneously evoking the world outside the canvas. Among contemporary painters, Bruno Zupan alone possesses the singular sensibility to strike such a perfect balance between surface and subject, between a convincing pictorial lyricism and the matter-of-fact materiality that is the even larger truth and triumph of the most advanced modern art”.
Zupan has been honored with over one hundred and fifty one-man shows in museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Japan, and has published fifty limited edition graphic works in Paris and Mallorca. In 1976, he was awarded life membership in the Society of French Artists, and in 1981 and 1991, he received special commissions to create First Day Covers for the World Federation of United Nations Associations Philatelic Program. The Columbus Museum of Art curated his first retrospective exhibition to coincide with his sixtieth birthday and the new millennium in February 2000. To accompany this event, two books were published. Bruno Zupan, One Artist, presents a large selection of his contemporary work in oil and watercolor.
