Giancarlo Impiglia, the QE2 Lifestyle Murals artist sent a message to say he was pleased to see that the murals were mentioned in the
July newsletter.We were delighted that such a renowned artist, whose artwork was part of the QE2's Heritage Trail, had taken time to write to us and even more delighted when he followed this up with additional information about the murals on QE2 and his artwork on other Cunard ships.
I am very proud of my QE2 murals and being the only Italian artist invited to create paintings for all 4 Queens. I've loved crossing the ocean in the company of my art works.
In 2010 a book was published in the UK "Paintings for the Queens and Collected Works."
The book can be found on my website. It contains reproductions of all the works I created for the Queens.
My story about the QE2 is quite long and I wish it could be told to guests visiting the ship.
It began in 1993 when the QE2 was docked on the Hudson River in New York and was in bad disrepair. At the time, Cunard had its head quarter in New York City on 5th Avenue and the new Cunard CO, John Olsen, was looking to bring the QE2 back to her original beauty. He was looking for new ideas and new art.
One day he saw one of my paintings hanging over the desk of Sue Shapiro, the president of a travel agency. He loved my style. At the time, I was having a show of my paintings in the Rizzoli Gallery on 5th Avenue, just across the street from Cunard's headquarter.
Mr. Olsen went to see my show and was so impressed that he asked his secretary to find me. She called me and set an appointment in Mr. Olsen's office.
Soon after the meeting I was hard at work on the murals for the QE2. About 6 months later they were picked up by Cunard movers from my downtown studio on Grand Street and delivered to, I believe, Hamburg, where they were installed in the Lido Restaurant.
After the retirement of the QE2, I was commissioned by Cunard, in 2003, to create 4 large paintings for the Queen Mary 2 on the theme of entertainment. The 4 paintings are permanently installed on Staircase B Across the Royal Court Theatre entrances.
In 2007 I was invited to paint the "Portrait of Queen Victoria as a Young Woman" which is now is gracing a wall of the Queens Room of the Queen Victoria.
In 2010 I was commissioned again to create 3 paintings for the new Queen Elizabeth. They are installed on the landing on deck 9. Also two other works are gracing the walls of the corridors giving access to the Royal Court Theatre entrance.
A long trail of commissions of paintings and dozens of voyages on the 4 ships are my legacy with Cunard. Additionally, as you might know I have been a speaker for Cunard ships since the completion of my murals in 1994, and I occasionally travel on board the 3 ships presenting topics on art and art history. This has given me the opportunity to see my painting again and again, which is always a pleasure.
Giancarlo and his wife enjoyed their visit to QE2 in Dubai last year:
We were invited by the person who restored the ship and built the QE2 Museum. We spent an afternoon on board and I was received with great honor by the representative of the Arab Emirates. I was quite impressed with the work that was being done for the ship.
We had a tour of the entire ship that at the moment was not completely finished.
The Lido was still under restoration. They were installing a beautiful marble floor and my large murals were not yet re-installed. However, some of my original prints were back on the wall freshly reframed. The entire Lido was at one point decorated with a series of my original silkscreen prints (20 of them), all beautifully framed and hung on the partitions separating the tables.
You can find out more
about the artist and details of his books and artwork for sale on his websiteGiancarlo has said he will look for digital images, when he has time and I will post these when I receive them.
In the meantime, if would be good to hear your memories of the murals in the Lido.
I have attached photos of the posters on display in the Crystal Bar. I just love these colourful posters so I was pleased to see them on display when I visited the ship in March of this year.
1) "Guests" (c) 1986
2) "An evening to remember" (c) 1988
