Enzo Apicella

Life and work

Enzo Apicella was born in Naples, Italy on 26 June 1922. Having served in the Italian Air Force during World War II, he went on to study at film school in Rome. Soon after, he became a freelance designer working in illustration and print journalism before co-founding Melodramma, an opera magazine, in Venice in 1953.

When the magazine ceased publication, he came to England in 1954 and began designing posters and sets for television, as well as producing cartoon films. A self-taught cartoonist, his cartoons have been published in The Observer, The Guardian, Punch, The Economist, Private Eye, and Harpers & Queen, "Liberazione".

In 1974 Apicella worked with artists John & Rosalind on the LP album A Night at Factotum. He produced the sleeve design and caricatures. He is not only a restaurant designer and former restaurateur, but is acclaimed as one of the protagonists of the Sixties – an enigmatic maverick, described by Vogue's Bevis Hillier as "One of the creators of the Swinging Sixties" who profoundly influenced the face of London's restaurant scene. Known for going that much further than any of his contemporaries, Apicella understood that the pop uprising demanded more eating out than in.

He worked as an interior designer for over 150 restaurants, including 70 for Peter Boizot's Pizza Express. He was co-owner of Club dell'Arethusa, Meridiana, Factotum, Apicella '81 and Condotti.

He has collaborated and worked with many well-known London restaurateurs including Peter Langan, Peter Boizot, Michael Chow, Alvaro Maccioni, Sir Terence Conran, and Mario Cassandro.

Apicella is a member of the Chartered Society of Designers and is listed in the Dictionary of British cartoonists and caricaturists.

Publications