The art of Bruno Zeppilli, keys to the outstanding Peruvian painter

The 70-year-old artist defines his art as figurative. However, following the line of Tilda Tsuchiya, his great teacher, he conceives that the color and composition of a painting are more important than the presence or absence of a figure.

Bruno Zeppilli is one of the most important painters in Peru and in current Latin American art. With decades of experience, he has built a work that presents a complex pictorial imaginary and combines elements of the Italian pre-Renaissance with colonial art and Peruvian popular art. The Lima Art Museum is the venue for his most recent exhibition, which can be visited until March 9.
The artist

Bruno Zeppilli was born in Lima in 1954. From a very young age he knew that he wanted to be an artist and dedicated a large part of his life to both academic and private training and self-taught.

He studied at the School of Fine Arts of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and at the National Autonomous School of Fine Arts in Lima. He also studied abroad, in places such as the Centro di Cultura Per Stranieri at the University of Florence, in Italy, and at the Mason Gross School of Arts at Rudgers University in New Jersey, in the United States.

His private training led him to study with great figures of Peruvian art. Zeppilli learned from Cristina Gálvez and Tilsa Tsuchiya. He considers both to be his great teachers and maintains that they taught him key aspects of art and also of life.
A fundamental episode

When Zeppilli was 17, he enrolled to study Literature, but soon realized that it was not for him. It was then that he applied for the Art degree at the Catholic University. But he did it late and there were no vacancies for that year, so he had to wait until the following year.

He took advantage of the time to train himself and it was then that his relationship with Gálvez began. Bruno remembers a fundamental episode that he considers marked him forever.

The Peruvian artist felt frustrated because he saw that he was not making progress in drawing. And he told Cristina that he was going to stop taking classes. The sculptor who died in 1982 prevented him from doing so and replied that from that moment on he would have to go every day in 2 shifts, afternoon and night.

Bruno remembers that it was not necessary for Gálvez to tell him that he had talent. That he understood the message and that he also learned the lesson about the importance of persevering and not giving up.
The influence of Tilsa Tsuchiya

Among his other teachers, he mentions Víctor Femenia, an engraving professor who was very interested in his particular way of drawing. He also remembers Alberto Dávila, who taught him painting at Bellas Artes.

He had a special relationship with Tilsa Tsuchiya. She was his teacher between 1974 and 1982 and taught him key aspects of artistic work, including how to organize an exhibition and when is the appropriate time to present it.

Zeppilli remembers that the Peruvian artist of Japanese descent tried to keep him away from commercial art. In an interview, the painter said that he and Tilsa did not talk about the art trade, but about art: about what and why to paint, among other things.
A unique style

Bruno Zeppilli defines his art as figurative. However, he explains that, just as Tilda taught him, he conceives all painting as abstract. In the sense that the most important thing is the color and the composition, and the presence or absence of a figure is a secondary fact.

His work proposes a complex dialogue between Italian pre-Renaissance, Peruvian popular art and colonial art. His paintings present stagings in which all the elements (background, characters and other objects) tell different stories.

He usually works with dark color palettes that create dense atmospheres. Pleasure and pain are recurring themes in his works. In this sense, Bruno confesses that he never liked either soft or pretty things because he believes that life is not like that.

With decades of experience, he remains current through creativity, art and work. His most recent exhibition is on display at the Lima Art Museum: “Visual Transformations,” which can be visited until March 9th inclusive.
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