Unlike other art forms, there is no formal recognition a painter can achieve among their peers — no Tony, Grammy, or Nobel. Recognition can arrive erratically, and a museum exhibition’s critical acclaim may not translate to success with collectors. The moments when large-scale, prestigious institutions offer a public showing can be few and far between, and that certainly also stands true with galleries. Too often, artists must choose between academic or collector acclaim. For over fifty-five years now, Bruno Zupan has been achieving that rare and coveted duality — both academic and collector success. The United Nations Headquarters (NY), the Museo de Mallorca (Spain), the Columbus Museum of Art (GA), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MA), and most recently the beautiful Millennium Gate Museum (GA), among many others, have recognized his invigorating blend of contemporary Impressionism and Jackson Pollock-style spatter. And the collectors have followed; Martha and I have enjoyed enriching numerous collections with Bruno’s confident hand — his deft brushwork is textured, skilled, and inspired — and we often hang his paintings beside such masters as Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, and more. Notable collectors include the Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Rothschild families in addition to royalty from several European nations.
Natasha Zupan, too, has demonstrated the ability to straddle these often-disparate worlds and is well on her way to achieving similar accolades. The Yale-educated artist has received recognition from classic fine art museums (the Columbus Museum of Art (GA) and the Museum of the Archives (Spain)) to special commissions and collaborations from the famed jewelry brand Swarovski, the fashion designer Zang Toi, among others. Her works were on display as part of the Venice Biennale 2022, a significant and coveted honor for contemporary artists working around the world today. Inspired by the bold hues of Mallorca, where both father and daughter make their home, Natasha combines rich pigments, antique fabrics, textured collage, encaustic, 24k gold leaf, and other media as she innovates her own unique and varied interpretation of modernism. Her artwork has been collected by Goldie Hawn, Michael Douglas, among many others.
We are honored to have collaborated with Bruno & Natasha Zupan for nearly twenty-five years now.
– Kristine Feeks Hammond & Martha S. Folsom, Co-Directors
Bruno Zupan in his Mallorca Studio, 2023
Many locales claim Bruno and Jane Zupan as their own — and for good reason — their unique, international lives bring them annually to Paris (France), Venice (Italy), Mallorca (Spain), and last but certainly not least to Columbus, Georgia (United States), where Jane spent her formative years. This year, Atlanta’s Millennium Gate Museum honored Bruno Zupan with a largescale exhibition of nearly sixty oil and watercolor paintings. Also hanging in the show were Zupan artworks on loan from former President Jimmy Carter and Mrs. Rosalynn Carter, The Carter Center, and other notable private collections. We are thrilled to announce that the bulk of this museum exhibition is traveling directly to Boston, where the artworks will be offered exclusively to Galerie d’Orsay collectors as part of our 2023 show.
Photo of The Millennium Gate Museum, 2023“I like to touch people’s souls. Some of us think with emotion and some with reason… sometimes it’s good to put emotion and reason together, it’s a perfect balance.”
– Bruno Zupan, Atlanta Tribune Interview, 2023
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, honored Bruno Zupan in association with their Art in Bloom event, an annual celebration during which local floral artists create bouquets inspired by artworks in the permanent MFA collection. Bringing the bloom full circle, Bruno was tasked with choosing one of the bouquets as inspiration for his newest bouquet composition on canvas. Rendering his contribution on-site in the expansive new Shapiro Courtyard, Bruno selected the arrangement of Hokusai’s “The Wave.” In addition to relaying his vision through his paintings on view, Bruno spoke beautifully at an exclusive members-only event in front of 600 patrons and collectors, sharing his inspiring story from war-torn Slovenia to meeting his American wife in Paris to his early beginnings at Boston College and beyond.
Bruno Zupan and Natasha Zupan at the MFA, Boston, 2015
My Friend The Earth, 51” x 35”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Bruno at The Millennium Gate Museum, 2023
LEFT TO RIGHT: Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave, Woodblock print in ink on paper; Bruno Zupan, Hokusai, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Nine Butterflies, 39” x 32”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Public Garden in Early Spring, 45” x 57.5”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
The permanent installation of Bruno’s exquisite “Public Gardens at Twilight, Boston Skyline” in the main foyer at the Boston Public Library was a highlight for us all in 2019. Honored with a very prominent placement just inside the main working entrance on Boylston Street, the painting virtually straddles the Boston Marathon finish line — a place of pride, emotion, and strength for so many visitors and locals alike. It was Bruno’s long-held dream to be in this collection alongside such greats as John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Bruno has frequently noted how Boston is the smartest city in the world, and he knows the Boston Public Library, along with our many prestigious colleges and universities, has a large hand in cultivating that honor.
RIGHT:
Jane Zupan, Bruno Zupan, Martha S. Folsom, Kristine Feeks Hammond, David Leonard (President of BPL), Daniel J. Moulton (Docent and Advocate, BPL), Meghan Weeks (Curator of Interpretation for BPL)
Special thanks to Beth Prindle, Boston Public Library Head of Collections (not pictured)
Boston Public Library, Photo by Ben Flythe
Photo by Ben Flythe, 2022
“The inspiration for this painting was initially conceived as a special commission from local Zupan enthusiasts. It is a wonderful example of what beauty can result from a collaboration between dedicated art lovers and a truly inspired master. We at Galerie d’Orsay are so pleased to see this painting hang in such a prestigious collection as the Boston Public Library.”
– Martha S. Folsom, Galerie d’Orsay Co-Director
Orpheus with Lyre, 22” x 18”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Almond Blossoms, Azur Sky (Diptych), 51” x 38.5” (each) Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Bouquet in Talavera Pot, Cinnabar Green, 39” x 32”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Trojan Horse, 32” x 39”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
View of Boylston Street and Public Garden, 51” x 38”, Oil on canvas
Weracoba Creek, 46” x 46”, Oil on canvas
Be My Valentine, 15” x 18”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Boat Carrying Dreams, 15” x 18”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Branches in Autumn, 35” x 46”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Rocks and Sea, Golden Reflections, 45” x 57.5”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
Ulysses and Sirens, 25.5” x 32”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
“Art is like a disciplined soldier fighting against melancholia.”
-Bruno Zupan
Looking Up Through Spring Branches, 46” x 35”, Oil on canvas
Grand Canal, Venice, 35” x 46”, Oil on canvas
Boston Public Gardens, Snowy Evening, 38” x 57.5”, Oil on canvas
Door by the Sea, Sunny Day, 46” x 35”, Oil on canvas
Artist and Muse, 25.5” x 32”, Oil on canvas with 23.5k gold leaf
July Fourth, Seen from Brooklyn, 32” x 39”, Oil on canvas
Window in Venice, San Trovaso, 39” x 32”, Oil on canvas
Natasha Zupan in her Mallorca Studio, 2023
To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wildflower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an Hour
– Excerpt from William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence” (c.1803)
Inspired by a 19th c. poem by English artist and poet William Blake, Natasha Zupan’s new body of work entitled “Holding Infinity” asks us to stretch our imagination and experience a stirring connection with the universal, divine light that surpasses understanding.
In this series, we find new worlds of meaning hidden in details and explore how they evolve and shift as we encounter them.
“I spend a lot of time in nature looking at horizons, sunsets, rock formations, starry nights, and moonlight. I memorize the fleeting colors before me, and then, in my studio recreate and “capture“ the light through both my imagination and my collage technique. I use an array of materials including antique fabrics, 24k gold leaf, discarded books, beeswax, oil, pigments, and more. I interpret the dynamism of nature combined with the history and inherent value in these recycled articles.
For me, collage is not about translating a world that already exists, but about entering a different universe: a timeless, tactile world of sensation and overlapping memory. It is made with both hands and loaded with real experiences and passions — both past and present.
“Holding Infinity” delves into nature’s essential, minute details and their indelible significance to our human experience.”
Holding Infinity 1, 54” x 38”, Mixed media on canvas (fabric, 24k gold leaf, and oil)
CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT: Holding Infinity 10, Mixed media on wood panel (acrylic, pigment, 24k gold leaf, and oil); Holding Infinity 9, Mixed media on wood panel (acrylic, pigment, wax, gold paint, and oil); Holding Infinity 11 Mixed media on wood panel (acrylic, pigment, silk, and oil), Holding Infinity 13, Mixed media on wood panel (acrylic, pigment, 24k gold leaf, and oil), 18” x 15” Each.
Holding Infinity 7, 31.5” x 23.5”, Mixed media on wood panel (knotted fabric, acrylic, pigment, and oil)
Holding Infinity 3, 51” x 36”, Mixed media on canvas (silk curtain and oil)
TOP ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): Holding Infinity 20, Mixed media on canvas (pigment, encaustic wax, 24k gold leaf, and oil); Holding Infinity 26, Mixed media on canvas (embroidered fabric and oil); Holding Infinity 21, Mixed media on canvas (pigment, 24k gold leaf, and oil); Holding Infinity 32, Mixed media on canvas (fabric, glass, and oil), 9.5” x 7.5” Each
MIDDLE ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): Holding Infinity 27, Mixed media on canvas (embroidered fabric and oil); Holding Infinity 31, Mixed media on canvas (fabric, glass, and oil); Holding Infinity 24, Mixed media on canvas (fabric and oil); Holding Infinity 28, Mixed media on canvas (fabric and oil), 9.5” x 7.5” Each
BOTTOM ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): Holding Infinity 29, Mixed media on canvas (fabric, encaustic wax, and oil); Holding Infinity 25, Mixed media on canvas (fabric, moon gold leaf, and oil); Holding Infinity 22, Mixed media on canvas (fabric, pigment, encaustic wax, and oil); Holding Infinity 33, Mixed media on canvas (fabric, moon gold leaf, and oil), 9.5” x 7.5” Each
“Natasha Zupan’s work is the closest thing I know to the alchemy of butterflies. She doesn’t play the conceptual games that freeze contemporary art, but instead with the narrative and sensitive poetry of life… Natasha’s sensibility renders a synesthetic world of connections with the settings of life… Natasha’s art evolves in the present and future due to a tension created from her living experience and her resistance not to deny the findings of great Masters…the quality of her work comes from a natural intuition of the processes of metamorphosis.”
– Excerpt from “Adaptation/Countershading” by art critic and author Felipe Hernandez
Holding Infinity 6, 38” x 30”, Mixed media on wood panel (fabric, 24k gold leaf, moon gold leaf, and oil)
Bruno Zupan was born in 1939 in Slovenia and studied art in Zagreb, Croatia before emigrating to Paris in 1962. There he enjoyed a thoroughly bohemian lifestyle with artists and students from many countries and cultures. He traveled to New York and Boston in 1964 and became an American citizen in 1969. Since then, Bruno has been honored with over 200 exhibitions in museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Kuwait and has published 50 limited-edition serigraphs and lithographs in Paris and Mallorca to complement his original oil and watercolor paintings.
In 1976, Bruno was awarded a life membership in the Society of French Artists and, in 1981 and 1991, he received special commissions to create First Day Covers for the World Federation of United Nations Associations Philatelic Program. In 1993, the Valladarez Foundation sponsored an exhibition of his work at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. To coincide with his 60th birthday in 2000, the Columbus Museum of Art curated his first retrospective exhibition and published two books to accompany this special event: “Bruno Zupan, One Artist” presents a large selection of his work in oil and watercolor and reveals an intimate view into his unique lifestyle and painting technique; and “Bruno Zupan, Graphic Work” is a complete catalog of his prints. With tremendous personal pleasure, Zupan accepted an invitation to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Sand extended jointly by the Festival Chopin in Valldemossa, Mallorca, and the Year of George Sand Committee in France. He prepared two widely acclaimed exhibitions for the Musée du Château d’Ars in La Châtre, France, and the Royal Carthusian Monastery of Valldemossa.
In 2015, the Boston Museum of Fine Art invited Bruno, known for his grand bouquets romantiques, to exhibit his work at their annual Art in Bloom exhibition.
Bruno has frequently noted that Boston is the smartest city in the world, and the Boston Public Library, along with nearly 50 prestigious local colleges and universities, has had a large hand in cultivating that honor. For Bruno’s second retrospective of his work and his 20th individual exhibition at the Galerie d’Orsay, the Boston Public Library acquired a large-scale Zupan painting depicting the iconic Boston Common with Boylston Street leading to Copley Square. This was an exciting event at the Boston Public Library as they had not added to their collection in years. It is also an incredible honor for Bruno’s painting to hang alongside such greats as Sargent, Rembrandt, Puvis de Chavannes, Titian, and numerous other masters.
Most recently, at the beginning of 2023, Bruno was honored with a solo show at the Millennium Gate Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, where over 50 of his original oil and watercolor paintings hang. His twenty exhibitions in New York inspired a great deal of critical comment since his style and subject matter were so determinedly out of sync with the times:
“Part of Zupan’s appeal is his willingness to take the necessary risks in terms of putting the emotive element back into landscape painting. He possesses the stunning confidence to put aside historical timidity and confront nature directly, and he has the rare painterly ability to translate passionate responses to it into transcendent works of art. His rhapsodic brushwork and singular vision have garnered him a worldwide following among those who still seek beauty in the art of painting. Bruno Zupan is one of the last great romantics, and for that alone, his work is worth treasuring.”
– Ed McCormack, ArtSpeak, New YorkPublic Gardens in Full Spring, View to Church (Detail), 32” x 39”, Oil on canvas
American Family Life Assurance Corporation
American Ballet Theater, New York, NY
Bank of America
Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
The Carter Center, Atlanta, GA
Colquitt County Arts Center, Moultrie, GA
Columbus Bank and Trust Company
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA
Macon Museum of Art, Macon, GA
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Museo de Arte de la Cartuja, Valldemossa
Museo de Mallorca, Palma
Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK
Philatelic Museum, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Schlumberger Corporation
Synovus Financial Corporation
Total System Services
UN Headquarters, New York, NY
Valladarez Foundation
Morris Museum, Augusta, GA
Musee du Chateau d' Ars, La Chatre, France
Maneuver Center of Excellence, Main Headquarters Building, Ft. Benning, GA
W.C. Bradley Museum, Columbus, GA
Private Collections
S.A.R. Doña Pilar de Borbon
Tom Brokaw
Colleen Dewherst
Margot Fonteyn
Ivan Nagy
Frederick Franklin
Marion Javits
Erica Jong
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent
Bruno Magli
Natasha Makarova
HRH Princess Grace of Monaco
The Perl Collection
Robert Corker
The Rockefeller Collection
Condes de Montríco
The Rothschild Collection
Sheikha Alia Mubarak Al Sabah
George C. Scott
Hedrick Smith
The Swarovski Family
Baron H. H. Thyssen-Bornemiza
Jacques Valenti
Terry Vanderbilt
Li Xiannian, President of the People's Republic of China
Dr. Simon Suen, Hong Kong
American, b. 1965
Spending her life between Spain and New York, Natasha Zupan grew up knowing she wanted to be an artist from the young age of three. She has spent her career cultivating an elegant and ethereal signature style while growing up alongside her father, the acclaimed impressionist painter Bruno Zupan. Her work is a union between the old and the new, playing with similar elements as her father in a modern manner.
Combining renaissance hues with chiaroscuro, and modern collages with mixed media, the Yale-educated artist innovates her own technique of modernism and admiration for the great masters. She utilizes rich, saturated brushstrokes to play on light and shadow arousing a sense of rhythm and youth in her work. The juxtaposition between her color palettes and subject matter emphasizes her union of the modern and the classic.
Zupan shows her works annually throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States, including showings at the Columbus Museum of Art in Georgia (US) and the Museum of the Archives in Mallorca (Spain). She has held over 35 one-woman exhibitions internationally and collaborated with Swarovski to design a chandelier for Art Basel/Miami and Salone Mobile, Milan, and Medsins du Monde to create a lithograph at the Joan Miró studio. She has designed a runway concept and installation for fashion designer Zang Toi’s New York Fashion Week runway show. In 2010, Natasha organized a show in Milan, Italy for Larusmiani. The luxury Italian heritage label asked her to collaborate on their first line of women’s clothing designed by Liborio Capizzi, who worked at Ferré under Gianfranco Ferré for 18 years. Natasha incorporated their fabric into her own work and created an exclusive commission for the flagship Milan store.
In 2022, Natasha was honored with an invitation to exhibit 88 artworks she created during the first months of the pandemic at the 59th Venice Biennale in the prestigious Palazzo Bembo on the Grand Canal. Her works currently hang in prominent collections worldwide, including the Swarovski Collection, Engel and Völkers, and the private collections of celebrities such as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
