Robert De Niro, Sr.

Robert Mario De Niro, Sr. (1922 January 17 – 1993 May 3) was an abstract expressionist painter. He is perhaps best known as the father of actor Robert De Niro, Jr.

Biography

Born in Syracuse, New York to an Italian American father, Mario DeNiro who was originally of Neopolitan descent, and an Irish mother, De Niro studied with Hans Hofmann at his Provincetown summer school where he met fellow student Virginia Admiral, whom he married in 1942. The couple moved into a large, airy loft in New York’s Greenwich Village, where they were able to paint. The couple surrounded themselves with an illustrious circle of friends including writers Anais Nin and Henry Miller, playwright Tennessee Williams, and actress and famous Berlin dancer Valeska Gert. Admiral and De Niro separated shortly after their son, Robert De Niro, Jr. was born in August of 1943.

College

De Niro attended Black Mountain College in the 1950s. Being a self proclaimed perfectionist, De Niro painted and repainted his canvases again and again. He would do hundreds of studies before he decided to paint the subject. De Niro was prone to bouts of depression and this encumbered him throughout his life.

Death

Robert De Niro, Sr. died at age 71 on a Monday morning on May 3rd 1993 in New York City. He is interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

References

• New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, New York School Press, 2000. ISBN 0-9677994-0-6
• Black Mountain College
• Robert De Niro, Jr

External links

• Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
• The Black Mountain College Project
• A PBS documentary on Black Mountain College
• ArtCyclopedia Page on De Niro
• Detailed information at Salander O'Reilly Galleries
• Artist overview and biography at Hackett-Freedman Gallery
• Archive of ArtSiteGuide Biography

This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: De Niro, Sr. Robert De Niro, Sr.

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