Biography

Giovanni Bruzzi, the great grandson of the 19th-century Italian landscape master Stefano Bruzzi, began painting at the age of nine.

The Paris Years Bruzzi studied under Rodolfo Margheri at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and had his first personal exhibition at Ottone Rosai's Galleria L'Indiano there. He worked in Paris during the 1960s, where Marc Vaux organized an important exhibition of his work at the Galerie du Foyer des Artistes in Montparnasse. Bruzzi's work from the Paris period includes paintings of his friend, legendary jazz drummer, Kenny Clarke.

The Gambling Years To support his family during the early years of his artistic career, Bruzzi took jobs in the gambling underworld of Italy - working as a "banker" in the illegal casinos of Rome and Florence. With those years well behind him, Bruzzi is very candid about his early associations with Italy's underworld. His paintings from this period feature colourful portraits of the gamblers, cardsharps and mobsters who befriended him as a young man.

- IMDb mini biography by: Diego Bruzzi