excerpted from essay; "Vincent Pepi by Harry Rand",1996 "

" Vincent Pepi graduated from the H.S.of Music & Art.In 1944 he volunteered to serve in the Navy, which allowed him to paint in North Africa. After this, he lived for a time in Mexico City. Further studies include enrollment in Cooper Union and Pratt Institute. In 1949 he left for Rome, Italy where he remained until 1951. During this time he painted some of his most important work."

"Pepi has never lost his grounding in manual virtuosity and as in other "first generation" Abstract Expressionists his surety of line and form elevates his art. As a painter who shared his time and environs with such as de Kooning and Kline, Pepi is very much an individual, with a consistency which courses through all of his work, which is both thoughtful and fervent. Long overlooked, partly by his own choices, Pepi is returned, a player in history. The past will care for the future."