VICTOR DI GESU

(American, 1914-1988)

MARIGOLDS

Oil on Grumbacher Artist’s Board

14 x 18 Inches

Signed Lower Right, Signed and Titled on Reverse

Exhibition: Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, 1971 (on label attached to reverse)

Victor di Gesu was born in Maryland in 1915 and first studied art at the Chouinard Art Center in Los Angeles. He then moved to Paris where he studied with Andre L’Hote at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. Di Gesu subsequently attended the Escuela de Belles Artes in Barcelona before furthering his studies in Italy and again in France. After this exposure to the ferment of European artistic movements, he returned to California, and worked with a variety of artists including F.Tolles Chamberlain and Maynard Jepson. Di Gesu was an intuitive colorist whose classical training combined with his research into Modernist color theory enabled him to create vivid yet harmonious works which, although reminiscent of the Fauves, retained an originality and spontaneity that was uniquely his own. Di Gesu was a prolific artist and was the recipient of numerous medals and awards, both in France and the United States. He exhibited widely and with success including at The Louvre Museum (Paris); the Exposition des Artistes Etrangeres, (Paris); The San Francisco Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum. We are pleased to offer a charming and lyrical still life by this notable California Modernist.