Poet, sculptor and artist Robert De Niro, Sr. became known during the postwar era for his dynamic, richly-colored paintings that gracefully synthesized modernist abstraction with more traditional compositions and formal themes.

Born in Syracuse, New York in 1922, De Niro was passionate about art from an early age. While still in high school, he attended art classes at the Syracuse Museum, where he was provided with a private room where he could paint independently. In addition to his early studies with etcher Ralph Pearson, he had the good fortune of studying under two of the 20th century’s leading colorists: first with Joseph Albers at Black Mountain College (1940), and later with Hans Hofmann (1941-42).

His work reflects his extensive training with these masters, as well as a strong reverence for the French avant-garde painters who influenced them. The long broken brushstrokes of Derain, the bold, (continued)