FERNANDO GUALTIERI

Fernando Gualtieri was born in France in 1919 but spent his childhood in Rimini, Italy, where he was educated. He settled in Paris after abandoning a career as a professional footballer for an Italian team. Attracted by «great art», he was drawn to the Louvre where his true vocation was revealed to him: painting.

1950 He enrolls at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière where he remains only briefly before setting out as a self-taught painter.

1951 - 1954 Exhibitions of his work are staged at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne.He is noticed by Claude Roger-Marx (Figaro Littéraire): «... admirers of trompe-l'oeil will appreciate the skill and attention with which Gualtieri manages by a kind of innocent forgery to riproduce the folds of an embroidered table-cloth, a bank-note or a hand-written envelope bearing a franked stamp for embellishment».

1954 His entire collection is bought by the Rocke International Corporation of New York.

1957 First prize at the New York Exhibition.

1958 - 1960 Exclusive exhibition in London at the Bond Street Gallery. Gualtieri becomes the portrait painter of the English aristocracy.

1959 Exclusive exhibition in Italy (Riccione, Palazzo del Turismo).

1960 Exclusive exhibition in Paris at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. Daniel Israel-Mayer (Arts) sees in the effect of light obtained by the artist «... an impression of mystery that is surrealistic. The works of Gualtieri suggest the great still-life paintings of a Claesz or a Heda...» - First prize at the Salon du Portrait.

1963 Exclusive exhibition at the Galerie André Weil presented by Georges Duhamel of the Académie Française: « Fernando Gualtieri affords us a lovely and even radiant surprise. He exploits his talent as a painter to the benefit of all subjects: still-life, portraits and compositions... We must congratulate this wonderfully gifted artist ...» Jean-Jacques Léveque recognizes in Gualtieri «The artistic values upheld in this universe of meditation and grandeur called into being by simple, everyday things ...»

1966 Another esclusive exhibition at the Galerie Weil. His work bears witness to his pursuit of the effect of light from the solar spectrum. Jeanine Warnod (Figaro) offers this analysis: «The self-taught painter Gualtieri reaches the point of perfect illusion in his trompe-l'oeil canvasses. He adds an element of surrealism born of his pursuit of colour and light deriving from the solar spectrum, and by this means, invents new tonalities that are the interaction of radiations ... ». Mr. Scrymgeour, Chairman of the Westburne Companies of Calgary, Canada, invites Gualtieri to this country to execute several portraits and to paint Alberta. Westburne and the Petroleum Club of Calgary stage an esclusive exhibition for the artist and buy a number of canvasses including two extremely large paintings: «After Stampede» and «Humanum Est». Various large scale compositions are on permanent exhibition at the Petroleum Club.

1966-1976 Gualtieri's Canadian period under the patronage of Mr. Scrymgeour who acquires 35 canvasses.

1970 Exclusive exhibition in Milan at the Galerie la Clessidra. Exhibition in Tokyo at the Daimaru Art Gallery.

1973 Exhibition at the atelier-galerie Galatée on the occasion of itsopening.

1974-1984 Various exhibitions at Comparaisons, from 1976, and at the Salons du Dessin et de la Peinture à l'eau in the Grand Palais.

1978 Exclusive exhibition at the Galatée in Montparnasse, Paris. Exhibition at the Galerie Vendome, Paris. Summer season in Deauville at the Galerie Jean-François Apesteguy, on the occasion of the American Film Festival.

1982 Talamello (Italy) confers on the painter the title of freeman and stages an exhibition at the town hall.

1983 Exclusive exhibition at the Galatée, Paris. The Georges Pompidou Centre devotes a display case in the Salle des Actualités to the works of the artist together with the poems of his wife, Yvette Gualtieri. Those responsible at the Centre for exhibitions of the Contemporary Scene (Salle des Actualités), acclaim this first example of «conjugal symbiosis» having the dual theme of painting and poetry.

1985 Salon de la Nationale des Beaux-Arts at the Grand Palais. Donatella Micault notes on the occasion that «The setting aside of an area in this Salon for esclusive display by the master of trompe-l'oeil Gualtieri, must be considered as well-deserved. Such is his virtuosity that his paintings reveal even the simplest of subjects. such as glasses in a basket, in a fascinating and wondrous light».

1985 October, Salon d'Automne.

1985 November, invited as guest of honour by the town of Vincennes to stage a personal exhibition at the Georges Pompidou Center.

1985 - 1986 Specially selected by the Nippon Network Television Corporation at the Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the artist's works are exhibited from May 1985 to April 1986 in the main galleries of eight Japanese towns.

GALATEE GALLERY
132-136 Bd du Montparnasse
75014 Paris - France
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