Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr.
1
He was the real thing...
my father.
I see his work, I see
how dedicated he was.
He was, to me,
a great artist.
But you can't--you can
never impose that on people.
They have to make
their own decisions.
The thought of what
he's done, all his work,
I can't not but make sure that
it's held up and remembered...
so I just want to see him
get his due.
That's my responsibility.
And he used to always say that
artists are always recognized
after they're long gone.
Part of recognition
is, is luck.
You have no control
over those things,
and so if that's what's
going to happen
then your time, hopefully,
will come later,
and we don't even
know if then.
De NIRO:
My father createdall this beautiful artwork.
I only have his stuff.
My mother's--
some of my mother's.
We had a good relationship.
He was very affectionate.
He was paternal.
He just didn't know certain
things as a father, what to do,
but he was a very
loving father.
and knew his art was special.
He was very young.
He felt he was different,
and he was different,
not only as an artist,
for other reasons.
He was not conventional.
He was from a small town.
And he probably felt
rejection from his father.
My grandfather was
classic, old-style,
kind of like, you know...
Italian American,
just, you know...
I just think he didn't
understand my father.
De NIRO, SR., VOICE-OVER:
I wanted to be an artist since
the time I was in Kindergarten.
There was nobody
I could practically
talk to about painting.
I was very unhappy.
I went everyday and painted,
but I was miserable there,
had no friends.
Then I heard of Hofmann.
I decided to try him, and I
went to him the next summer.
And then it was quite different
because I was enthusiastic,
and I met people
that I thought like,
and it was a whole--
another world.
Prior to the Second World War,
the art scene
was all about Europe.
The surrealists were in Paris,
the Bauhaus was in Germany.
an interesting shift
came about here in
the United States,
especially in New York.
You had artists fleeing Europe
to come to New York for safety
and setting up schools.
for the first time,
really having some
hands-on experience
with the most avant-garde
trends in painting
and architecture and design.
MAN:
Hofmanncame from Germany
and set up a school
which then went on
for a very, very,
very long time.
And if you take all of the
Hofmann students, I mean,
it's an enormously long
and distinguished list.
Many, many, many really
first-rate artists
were his students or
proteges, in some cases.
MAN:
It was 1942, and there were4 or 5 of us in that class
with Hans Hofmann.
Not only Bob, but
Virginia, his wife.
Hofmann, when he'd look
at the work, he did say
that his two best students--
and he had so many famous
artists as students--
that Bob and Virginia were the
best students he ever had.
Big compliment.
Bob and Virginia
met at Hofmann's.
Virginia was very impressed
with Bob's work.
And so, they hit it off.
I think he was handsome
'cause he was a little taller.
for a long time.
MAN:
And they had gottenmarried and Bobby was a baby.
He was a baby on the floor.
And she's a very good
painter, Virginia Admiral--
vivacious, good-looking,
very good to Bobby,
and excellent person.
Virginia was the first one who
made it big when we got out.
She had a great exhibition
at a big gallery
called Art of This Century.
The famous critics
gave her rave reviews.
MAN:
I think it's verycomplex why she didn't
continue to paint.
I think she felt very guilty
that she wasn't painting,
'cause I think she admired Bob
for the fact that he just
didn't let anything
get in his way.
De NIRO:
I don't really feelshe gave it up.
She just moved
to something else.
And maybe she felt she couldn't
really do it, ultimately,
or she was as far as she
could go as an artist.
Not that she didn't try. She was
doing things in her studio.
And her argument was always
that she needed to be
practical to support me.
KRESCH:
When the son must havebeen about a year old,
there was a big rift,
big rift.
De NIRO:
Why they couldn't staytogether, they were different.
Maybe his sexuality.
I don't know where
that stood at that point.
his life in his journals,
which gives me an idea of
what he was going through.
"If God doesn't want me to be
have so much guilt,
"he will find a woman whom I
will love and who will love me
"or at least create
an interest in me
Obviously, I realize now
that it was hard for him.
He had a lot of what it
seems like classic
conflicts about all that.
My mother and I spoke
about it a little bit,
and he was very quiet
with whatever he did
'cause I never was--
He's not gonna tell me.
I'm his son, you know?
I'm the last
person to know.
KRESCH:
And Bob said,"I'm leaving.
"I...that's it.
I don't want to
stay here anymore."
And he got a place. I think
that's when he lived near me.
De NIRO:
They divorcedwhen I was around 11 or 12,
but they separated when I was
around 2 or 3 or something.
My mother and father
were always friends,
and she always
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