Andrew Bucci

In the realm of visual arts, Andrew Bucci is regarded as Mississippi's modern master. Over the course of a prolific career that spanned nearly eight decades, Bucci established an enduring creative legacy. His enthusiastic following continues to gain momentum as new audiences discover his work. Known primarily as an abstract artist, he was fluent in a range of styles and drew inspiration from familiar yet timeless sources — Greek mythology, nature, the human face and form, and landscapes reflecting his roots in the Deep South. A native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Bucci was influenced early in his career by instructor Marie Atkinson Hull, one of Mississippi's most prominent 20th-century artists. While stationed in Europe after World War II, Bucci took life-drawing classes at the Académie Julian in Paris and completed his formal training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also briefly studied fashion illustration at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Bucci's military training in meteorology led to a career with the National Weather Service near Washington, D.C., where he settled in 1956. He continued producing art and maintained a steady presence in the Mississippi art scene. He even designed the 5-cent U.S. postage stamp commemorating Mississippi's 150th anniversary of statehood in 1967. Bucci received lifetime achievement awards from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. His painting, “Figure in Green,” was selected as the signature image for the 2014 USA International Ballet Competition. In 2015, Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi, presented a retrospective exhibition, "Andrew Bucci: Rediscovered," which showcased a dazzling array of Bucci's artwork spanning from the 1950s to the 2000s, including many works that had not been seen before by the public. In 2017-18, his paintings were featured in two exhibitions celebrating Mississippi's bicentennial: Mississippi Museum of Art's "Picturing Mississippi: Land of Plenty, Pain and Promise," and Lauren Rogers Museum of Art's "From Mississippi: Another Look at Our Artistic Heritage." His works are featured in numerous collections, including Mississippi Museum of Art, Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Johnson Collection, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Smithsonian Archive of American Art, and many others.