Nunzio Vayana, Farm-House-in-Spuds-Florida, oil-on-board, 16 1/4 by 20 inches. Signed lower right with characteristic red paint.
In 1903 Nunzio Vayana immigrated to the United States from Italy, settling in Hartford, Connecticut. By 1924 he was one of two recognized Italian artists living in Hartford with the Vayana Studio located on Pratt Street in what is now Hartford’s Historic District. Vayana met with some success and by 1915 had opened a studio in New York City at No. 6 East Forty-sixth Street, where in October he hosted a large “musicale” in honor of the noted Italian tenor, Guido Ciccolini.
A firebrand orator with defined political opinions, in 1921 Vayana returned to Italy where he was urged to speak publicly on political issues from the viewpoint of an Italian American and, with members of his family, met with the Pope.
In 1922 Vayana founded, in one of his finest gifts to the world of art, the Ogunquit Art Center in Ogunquit, Maine. The Portland Evening Express, June 26, 1930, tells the story: “The Art Center in the fishing village of Ogunquit was established in 1922 by Nunzio Vayana. It began as a small one-room gallery and the original purpose was to afford the local artists an opportunity to exhibit together. The first-year visitors numbered nearly 3,000. The second year one more room was opened and artists throughout New England were invited to exhibit. The number of visitors grew to 6,200. In 1929 over 13,000 people visited the exhibition. The Art Center has been enlarged and at present it has five exhibition galleries. Artists from all over the country now exhibit there.” Vayana was director of the Art Center until his death in Ogunquit in 1960. Today the Ogunquit Museum of American Art is a jewel of a museum, familiar to all art lovers and vacationers who visit Maine.
Nunzio Vayana, oil on canvas, 36 by 30 inches. Signed-lower right in red and verso.
Vayana first came to St. Augustine in the winter of 1932 and, with the sponsorship of the St. Augustine Arts Club, opened an exhibit of one hundred of his paintings in Davenport Park in February and March. Three were auctioned off to raise funds for the new Arts Club.
In 1933, with the patronage of Palm Beach winter residents Mrs. Stotesbury, Mrs. Weidner, and Mrs. Woodhouse, Vayana opened the Palm Beach Art Center on East Main Street in what was the Oasis Club. Here Vayana would exhibit his own work and the works of other artists of ability. In February of 1936, a young artist, Albert “Beanie Backus, was awarded the Henry E. Bemis prize for one of his painting, Glorious Florida. Vayana commented, “The jury…has found that the picture has all the good qualities it needs…The director offers congratulations and wishes young Backus perseverance and continued success in his artistic endeavors.”
Vayana was a popular member of the greater Florida art community, often giving lectures and demonstrations on art. He spent his last winters in Florida in Winter Haven.
Born: 1878, Verona, Italy. Died: December 12,1960, Ogunquit, Maine. Education: University of Rome, first medicine, later art. Membership: Palm Beach Art League, honorary member; St. Augustine Art Club, honorary member; Palm Beach Art Center and Art School, founder, 1933; Ogunquit Art Center, founder and director, 1920; Meriden Arts and Crafts Association; Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts; The Society of Connecticut Artists; American Federation of Artists; Artists Club of Hartford, Connecticut, president; Springfield Art League; Gloucester Art Society; Venetian Art Club; International Art Club, Rome; National Association of Professional Artists. Exhibits: Meriden Arts and Crafts Association, May 1913, Sunset and Drifting; Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, January 1914, including Cielo e’ Mar; Italian National Club, New York City, February 1914; Artists Club Gallery, Hartford, March-April 1926, one-man exhibit; St. Augustine Arts Club, February-March 1932, 100 paintings including, Out of the Mist, Spring, Open Sea, Casa Petrarca; Daytona Beach Art League, Annual 1947, 18th Annual, 1950, judge.
