Victor Joseph Gatto

1893 - 1965

Victor Gatto was born in Greenwich Village, NY in 1893.  This area was known for its artist community and was largely an Italian neighborhood.  He became a professional boxer but a few years later was sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit.  Shortly after release, he discovered that he could make money selling art at the Greenwich Village sidewalk show.  He practiced his art as a form of physical assertion. The keynote of his art and life was a pugnacity that brought him public attention but obscured the value of his work.  As an ex-boxer, he prided himself on marathon bouts of painting which could last up to 26 hours.  Gatto built ordinary scenes into dramatic ones by rendering them in sharp, often fantastic detail working with tiny brushes and impasto techniques.  He was popular with collectors, critics and journalists but made little money from his work.  He continued to draw until his death in 1965.  ³