Figurative painter, draughtsman and teacher, born in Port Talbot, Glamorgan, of Italian parents. Vicari, who described his work as “romantic realism”, was the youngest pupil of his year at the Slade School of Fine Art, 1949–51, under William Coldstream, where his tutor was Lucian Freud. This followed a period as a child prodigy and studies at Accademia Brera, Milan. Encouragement from Francis Bacon, Josef Herman and Augustus John was a powerful influence. Vicari had his first solo show at the Obelisk Gallery in 1956. In that year, when he exhibited in illustrious company at Redfern Gallery, David Sylvester wrote of his “images of a remarkable vibrant quality, rich in poetry”. Several dozen solo shows followed in London, Paris, New York and Nice.
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After an exhibition at the Galerie Vendôme, Beirut, in 1975, the Saudi Arabian government commissioned 60 oil paintings – The Triumph of the Bedouin – for the new King Faisal Conference Centre in Riyadh, and to complete them Vicari moved to Monaco, where he had a studio in Monte Carlo. The Majesty of King Faisal, depicting events in his life, painted for the King Faisal Foundation, was unveiled in 1984. Portraiture had become important in Vicari’s output, his subjects including Princess Caroline of Monaco and her father Prince Rainier, Prince Louis de Polignac, Princess Mimosa Parodi Delfino del Drago and many friends. Vicari’s Vigonades, a symbolical and satirical series of drawings and paintings, featured enigmatic female figures and touched on the artist’s concern with death. Vicari was appointed official painter to Interpol. Following the Gulf War, Vicari began a 215-picture chronicle of the conflict, The Liberation of Kuwait, in a disused factory, amid tight security, using a forklift truck to cope with the biggest canvases. In 1995 he was the first Occidental artist to exhibit in Beijing, China, a trilogy of Mao Tse Tsung, Confucius and Qin Shi Huang, first Emperor of China. Vicari’s work is in numerous international public, private and corporate collections, including the Slade. In 2005, The Sunday Times’s annual list of the United Kingdom’s 1,000 wealthiest people ranked Vicari at 607, with a fortune of £80 million.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
