NEXT EPISODE...

(Having to do with the BLT sandwich on white toast and I meet Betty Parsons)

...When we got downstairs and were sitting at the lunch counter I did a silly thing. Catherine Viviano ordered a dainty little sandwich of something or other and I ordered Bacon lettuce and tomato on white toast with mayo.

It was a very unwieldly sandwich especially the mayo part. I managed
to make it disappear along with some engaging conversation about Rome and
such. How exciting it was to be back in New York City after so long etc. Then she said -" I would like you to meet Betty Parsons. Her gallery is just across the
street". I said "great", and along we went. Betty Parsons was very pleasant and friendly. They both got a good look at the paintings I brought with me. One was a portrait of my wife, Teresa. My professor Beppe Guzzi Loved it. Matta also had seen it and liked it as well. But all of the abstract work I had produced while I was in Rome, I did not show them. I did not have it with me. I guess I thought I would show them one or two things and then they would say. Have you done any abstract work? And of course I would have said; "Oh yes, I have done quite a bit." And then they would make an appointment with me to come out to Corona Queens where I lived under the Elevated subway and look at all of my "stuff". All of this never happened. They told me that I was very talented (which I already knew) and that I should keep up the good work. That most of the artists now coming up and being noticed were well into their late thirties and early forties. So, I went home . When I got home, I found my lovely, sweet wife and my gorgeous little boy with beautiful eyes as big as ever. When I would return home from work every night and come down the steps of the elevated train, there was my wife with the baby in the carriage and invariably a couple of people crowding around the carriage to say what a beautiful baby he was. What more could I want.?


NEXT EPISODE... to come

Welcome

Welcome to Vincent Pepi's Web Log, "ART NOTES"

I welcome all those interested in Art, as a dynamic
Force to step inside my studio and participate in a
free exchange of ideas having to do with art.
Those of us who are in the art business. That is:
anyone who either makes, or sells or writes about
Art,or delivers/ or is a collector, or stores art in a
museum basement/ or those people who are advisers to
those who admit that they know very little about art
and consequently require an art advisor(educator) in
order to purchase some art for the wall. All these
people and including Art students, Art history
students and scholars are all in the art business.
Andy Warhol was the first one to my knowledge who
was quick to understand how the art business works,
here in New York City. After studying at Carnegie Art
Institute, he did not rush down to Miami or to the
west coast to put out his shingle announcing..
"Artist- Open for business". He saw immediately that
there were Two ART departments here in Manhattan. The
Fine art dept. And the Commercial art department. You
would really be committing an act of sacrilege, if you
should per chance confuse the two. Fine art and
commercial art were not to be mixed up with one
another. This basic tenant holds true to this day. But
Andy
saw it differently. He knew that it was only one dept.
Commercial art business. So when he wrote a letter
back home in Pittsburgh to his mom. He wrote: I'm in
the art business. He made no distinction between Fine
and and commercial art. God Bless him.
When I came back to NYC. in 1951, after my sojourn
in Rome Italy, I had a note from Robert Matta. He was
with my wife and I in my Rome
studio (via Vittorio Colonna,# 35), when he asked me.
"What do you plan to do when you get back to NYC?" I
replied, I don't know?
He suggested that I drop in to see Catherine Viviano
at her gallery.
He asked me for a sheet of paper and proceeded to
write a note for me to give her. The note read: " I
introduce you to the painter Vincent Pepi who I
recommend to you and who's work I find to be very
dynamic." When I arrived at her gallery on 57th
street, I was greeted by her brother, who brought me
into her office. She took the note, read it and then
we talked. I knew very little about the art world at
that time, but I was very enthused. I asked her if she
would like to have lunch with me at the Drug store
lunch counter. She accepted

next episode... "Bacon lettuce and tomato on
white toast- after
which I am introduced to Betty Parsons across the
Street"