Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr. Page #2

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would help him, too,

and be supportive

of him and his work.

I wouldn't see him that often.

Sometimes I'd see him in

the street, I'd run into him,

you know, or I'd

see him on his bike.

He liked to take me to movies.

So, I remember seeing--

is it "Beauty and the Beast"

that was Cocteau?

I can't remember.

Charlie Chaplin...

the original

"King Kong", I think.

And we'd go to movies

on 42nd Street.

He liked me

to go to his shows,

which I didn't want to

do when I was young,

but my kids

are the same way, so...

One of my father's first

big opportunities

was when he had a show at

Peggy Guggenheim's

Art of This Century.

I'm sure it meant

a lot to him.

STORR:
Peggy Guggenheim

was a power broker

who had gone to Europe,

befriended most of the

great modernists of Paris

and then came back

during the war

and founded a gallery called

Art of This Century.

It was in this context that

she was first presenting

American artists as the

peers of all of these

famous European artists.

And so, to have Peggy

Guggenheim pick you for a show

was a very, very big deal

and it made reputations.

KELLY:
De Niro exhibited

in the Fall Salon

at The Art of This Century

gallery in 1945.

The show was largely made

up of abstract paintings,

but the figures influenced by

Analytical Cubism were still,

to some extent, recognizable.

The figurative strain in

his work soon took over,

influenced by Ingres,

Corot and Courbet.

MAN:
His entry into the art

world was that he captured the

attention of this art world.

He would certainly have

gotten reviews

in all of the art magazines.

Clement Greenberg

was a potent voice.

De NIRO:
"Peggy Guggenheim

has discovered another

important abstract painter

"at her Art of

This Century gallery--

"Robert De Niro, whose first

show exhibits monumental effects

rare in abstract art."

KELLY:
Thomas Hess was the

editor of "Art News."

Hess developed a series,

which became very popular

and which Robert De Niro, Sr.

was a part of.

STORR:
In terms of power people,

starting with Peggy Guggenheim

and Tom Hess, you couldn't

have done better in those years.

Right away, when we

got out of Hofmann's,

this is when he started selling.

He got very good write-ups.

And he was still young,

maybe in his early 30s,

he was already painting

like someone very mature.

He found his way very early

and didn't much change

in 30 or 40 years

of painting.

He didn't have the struggle

that many of us had with going

this way or that way

to find our way.

He had known right

away what he was.

His studio, I mean,

this was it.

It was really like this

moving, live, active place.

I remember being little

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