BUCCI, ANDREW (1922-2014)

"Figure Study" (c.1970-80) 
mixed media on paper
cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Bucci was a prominent, award-winning American Mid Century Painter. He was influenced early in his career by Mississippi artist and teacher Marie Hull. After the outbreak of World War II, Bucci enlisted in the United States Army. When the war ended, he was stationed for several months at Orly Air Base near Paris and took life-drawing classes at the Académie Julian in 1945–46. In 1947, he enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received a B.F.A. in 1951 & an M.F.A. in 1954. Between degrees he studied fashion illustration at Parsons School of Design. In the late 1940s, Bucci was among the original group of artists to exhibit work and teach at Mississippi's first art colony at Allison's Wells Hotel. Bucci's paintings have been viewed throughout the South for over half a century, beginning with the Mississippi Art Association in 1947 and including exhibitions at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in 1952, 1965, 1979 and 2000. His works have been part of numerous national and regional shows at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Pennsylvania Academy of Design and New Orleans Museum of Art, among others. Bucci's works are in numerous collections, including the Arkansas Arts Center, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Mississippi Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Florence Art Gallery and The Johnson Collection in South Carolina, Delta State University, Hinds Community College and Mississippi University for Women.