Christian Nepo, Le Pecheur
In 2003, just as I was preparing for a very large exhibition in my home, Monsieur Nepo sent me twelve oversized oil paintings, rolled up in a tube. We had decided it was time to go larger, and he had worked painstakingly on this new series for several months. When the tube was delivered from FedEx, it was unusually light. When I opened it, my first thought was that this was some kind of a joke: It was empty!
After many anxious phone calls to the artist, and to multiple FedEx locations, I was told that three of the paintings had been recovered on the warehouse floor, but the others couldn’t be found. We patiently hoped for the other nine to arrive, and when they didn’t, I took my complaints to the President of FedEx. My lawyer brother helped me draft a few letters, and we thought that if they couldn’t find the paintings, at least they’d find the decency to reimburse the artist. But that never happened, and we were all left devastated and deflated.
That was the first time Christian Nepo totally surprised me. After a month of paralysis, when he couldn’t even look at a paintbrush, he woke up one morning and decided that he would take this as a sign, and paint in a whole new style. It was a true testament to this man’s talent, range, and fighting spirit that when he did pick up a paintbrush again, the work was light, happy, and completely different from the ones that were lost.
An example of an older, but similar, work that shows how Nepo’s style has progressed.
Monsieur Nepo has also distinguished himself, happily, as the only artist whose work has suffered losses in our gallery not once but twice! What is it about this artist that invites a brush with disaster? Just last year, at our Bastille Day celebration, we received several marvelous little jewels from Nepo, some of which were framed, and others were sitting delicately on easels during our show, with one of our favorites, prominently displayed by the front door.
The bad news is that this painting boldly walked out the door during the middle of our show. The good news is that not only was there a major outcry from the local press about this, but the theft actually made it to front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, as well as a feature on the local TV news (link here).
As a result of this unfortunate incident, we upped our security standards and installed metal detectors for most of our shows (only kidding – our surveillance cameras are well hidden!). We hope that whoever absconded with our little jewel is way too shamed and embarrassed to ever even enjoy it. And we’re happy to report that we’ve not had any incidents since then (although we did get a barrage of phone calls from other retailers telling us who they suspected might have committed the theft!).
As for Monsieur Nepo? He emerged from this one unscathed and rather bemused that his work attracts so much attention, from good guys and bad guys alike, in Atlanta.
It is with great pride and delight that we will be introducing new work from our wonderful artist, Christian Nepo, at our Bastille Day Show, July 14th. We hope you’ll join us for a very French toast to our beloved but distant friend!
Tata!
A.
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