VINCENT PEPI

PEPI--Vincent, passed away March 12, 2020 at the age of 93 on the East End of Long Island, NY, where he lived. Pepi was best known as an artist, active as early as the 1940s, in which he produced some of the foremost examples of gesture painting to have emerged from abstract expressionism. Born in 1926, Boston, MA, he attended the High School of Music & Art in New York City, and later studied art and design at The Cooper Union and Pratt Institute. He served in the Navy during World War II, and traveled to Africa and Mexico before settling in Rome, Italy where he met Teresa Gigantino, whom he married. They lived in Rome until 1951 then returned to New York, where Pepi re-joined the small group of abstract expressionist artists known as the "New York School" during a definitive period of experimentation. While he was academically trained, he attended the famed avant-garde painting classes of Hans Hoffman. Though he worked in the style known as action painting, his paintings were occupied with precision, balance, and attention to color and line. In addition to his work, which is in numerous collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Grey Art Gallery, NYU, he will be remembered for his warm demeanor, tenacious spirit, and profound faith in art's ability to reflect the human condition. He is survived by his two children, Leonard and Diana, their spouses Joanna Pepi and Richard Stott, and grandsons Michael and Robert. The family may be contacted through vincentpepi.com.