American Painter
Painter, sculptor and poet Robert De Niro, Sr. was a substantial contributor to post-war American art for his dedication to painterly representation. While his contemporaries eschewed the figurative style of the Old Masters, De Niro reveled in it. Yet, he manipulated this representative imagery in highly imaginative ways, using reality as a framework in which to evolve his intensely expressive brushstrokes and colors. This vivid, innovative, representational work established De Niro as a distinct figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement.
Robert De Niro was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1922. He began making art at age five and showed immediate and immense talent, eventually enrolling in adult classes at the Syracuse Museum. At only 12 years old, he impressed his teachers so much that he received his own studio in the museum school. While his Irish mother encouraged his painting, his Italian father did not. Despite his father's disapproval, De Niro continued developing his exceptional artistic skill.
De Niro's primary subjects were representational landscapes, still lifes and portraits, such as the seated woman in Portrait of Mrs. Z. He expanded on these traditional subjects with carefully chosen combinations of vivid colors bordered by distinctive outlines, reflecting an influence of artists such as Cézanne, who also painted expressionistic figurative works. Through these works, De Niro gained recognition for connecting French Fauvist painters' colors and representational themes with Abstract Expressionists' gestural paint application.
Oil on canvas - Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
In Pattern Still Life #1 , one of De Niro's many still life paintings, he continued using representational subject matter as a forum for expressionistic experiments with color. Often drawn to interesting patterns and designs, he closely replicated the decorative patterns found around the room, but in many other still life works he deployed a more abstracted style. He also integrated his diverse, multicultural interests into his work, commingling exotic or antique sculpture amidst everyday flowers and fruit. By the time he created this painting, De Niro had solidified the painterly representational style in which he worked for the remainder of his career.
Oil on canvas - Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
Although De Niro was making work at the same time as the Abstract Expressionists, he drew less on the sharp angles of Cubism than did his contemporaries. Nude with Leg Up illustrates his propensity for rich, thickly applied colors, dynamic, spontaneous curves and wavy brushstrokes. Linearity played a particularly integral role within De Niro's work; many of his paintings' compositions relied on bold outlines to give structure to the abstracted sections of color.
Oil on canvas - Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco
De Niro's landscapes, many of which he painted in the 1960s and 1970s, often featured a harmonious relationship between architecture and nature, with one blending into the other. In these paintings, De Niro merged deep abstraction with recognizable images of buildings, roads and plants. He also continued using the bright, Fauvist palette prevalent in his other works. Gray Barn in Blue Landscape also exemplifies the recurring overlapping of colors using thick, undulating brushstrokes.
Oil on gessoed panel - Ameringer-Yohe Gallery, New York
In addition to painting, De Niro also wrote a great deal, particularly poetry, which he self-published in a 1976 book called A Fashionable Watering Place. This 10-part lithograph series of the same name combines his handwritten poetry and black and white illustrations. His expressionistic imagery brings to life the visual descriptions in his poems. The poem written on this page begins, "The rose behind your ear/ Close to your temple/ Is fading/ And you with it.
Color lithograph - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco
Crucifixion scenes were another frequent motif for De Niro, reflecting his personal background as a lapsed Catholic who retained his interest in the religion, particularly in the ritual, art and music. Despite the specific subject matter, these paintings were as expressionistic as his other works, and thus, they sidestepped extreme religious iconography. Yet, they still possess strong emotional undertones, reinforced by the dark lines and vibrant shapes De Niro created using a brush heavily loaded with rich paint.
Oil on canvas - Estate of the Artist
Content compiled and written by Rachel Gershman
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
