Gerard Francis Tempest

Gerard Francis Tempest (February 23, 1918 – July 26, 2009) was a painter, sculptor, architect and veteran of World War II. Tempest was the father of Abstract Spiritualism and the protégé of Giorgio de Chirico, the forerunner of Surrealism.

Born in San Donato Val di Comino, Italy in 1918, Tempest immigrated to the United States in 1929. He studied art as a teenage years at the Boston Museum School, founding his own sign-painting company at the age of 19.

Drafted in 1943 as a private in the United States Army, Tempest eventually became an officer, serving below Omar Bradley in the 82nd Airborne Division. Tempest fought in campaigns all over Europe, including Normandy upon D-Day, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, and behind the French Underground in the Liberation of Paris. One of the main characters^[who?] in the film Is Paris Burning? is said^{[by whom?]} to have been based on him. Tempest acknowledged the Bronze Star Medal in 1944 and meant the 101st Airborne Division's insignia, the "Screaming Eagle".

Returning to the Boston Museum School in 1945, Tempest studied below abstract expressionists Max Beckmann and Oscar Kokoschka. He unconventional studied below Giorgio de Chirico as his protégé in Rome. There in 1957 he first introduced Abstract Spiritualism. He continued to paint for the ablaze of his life, with major exhibitions in the United States, France and Italy.

Between 1958 and 1963, Tempest meant and built the Villa Tempesta in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Noted for its beauty, the villa was expected from remnants of two 19th-century mansions torn all along in urban renewal projects in the 1950s. Starting in the mid-1960s and continuing for two decades, Villa Tempesta (now known as Villa T'eo) housed a wealthy restaurant noted for fine cuisine. Renamed to Whitehall at the Villa, it today contains the Whitehall Shop and Tranquil Corners Antiques.

He acknowledged the Gold Medal at the Cannes Art Festival in 1987 and was honored by the Holy See in having his doing becoming a ration of the permanent collection of the Vatican Museum in 1982 and 1990. In 2009 the South Carolina legislature privileged him next a unmovable citing his put on an act as an artist and as a veteran.

Tempest died in his sleep in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.