NICOLA SIMBARI
“Sitting With The Cat”
A striking oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist Nicola Simbari (1927 – 2012) depicting a lady and a cat sitting on chairs in an interior. This is a classic painting by this artist with bold bright colours applied using a palette knife.
Some other examples of works by this artist are included at the end of the photos.
Frame: Set in a modern silver coloured wooden frame.
Signature: Lower right.
Provenance: USA private collection.
Condition: Painting and frame are both in very good condition.
Measurements: Painting measures 100 x 80cm and the overall frame 114 x 94cm.
Biography: Born in San Lucido, Calabria, Nicola Simbari was raised in Rome, where his father was an architect for the Vatican. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma and in the 1940s he began devoting himself to painting in a studio at Via del Babuino in central Rome. Simbari’s early exposure to the architectural world had a lasting impression on his art, as he incorporated geometric forms and architectural structures into almost all of his paintings. He began to develop a distinct style stemming from impressions of life, nature, and the Mediterranean, impressions which abstractly reflect themselves in the purely vivid and passionate colors of his work. Simbari’s originality and commercial appeal brought his art to exhibitions in London and New York by the 1950s, solidifying his international reputation. He opened his first studio in Rome at 22 years of age. He saw success almost immediately, and shortly after a one-man show in London, he was commissioned to paint murals for the Italian Pavilion at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels. Simbari’s early works featured scenes from his childhood – gypsies, cafes, fishing villages, and the Italian countryside.
Nicola Simbari is considered by many to be Italy’s most important modern artist. Using stunning colours and favouring brilliant tones, he paints with a palette knife and achieves great depth with this technique. Simbari’s paintings are full of light and energy. Major American and English critics have called Simbari “thoroughly disarming”; one who paints “boldly and in a state of excitement”; “whose personal enthusiasm and enormous zest for life have much the same infectious appeal as do his paintings.”
Mediterranean landscapes and paintings of contemporary European life are usually Simbari’s subjects, although he also paints scenes of the Southwest. Simbari’s canvases are filled with color and emotion.
Simbari’s works can be found in numerous museums and private and corporate collections around the world. His paintings are in collections including the Bank of Tokyo and the Christian Dior Collection in Paris; Italian State Railways in Rome; Liberty Company in London; and Tulsa Bank of Commerce, Cincinnati Fine Arts Department, Exxon Corporation, General Mills Corporation,and Pepsico, in America.
Nicola Simbari died on December 11, 2012 in Frascati, Lazio, Italy.