Umberto Romano (artist)
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Umberto Romano | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1906 Bracigliano, Campania, Italy |
| Died | 1982 (aged 77) Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City, New York, United States |
| Style | Abstract expressionism |
Umberto Romano (1906–1982) was an Italian-born American painter who settled in Cape Ann.[1] His early style has been described as classic modern, while his later works are characterized as abstract expressionist.[2]
Works by Romano are held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Fogg Art Museum in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[3] the Smithsonian Institution,[4] and the Whitney Museum.[5][2][6]
Romano was born in Bracigliano, a comune near Salerno, Italy.[6] He immigrated to the United States at age 9 with his parents,[6] and was raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he attended Howard Street School and Central High School. He later enrolled at the National Academy of Design in New York City[7] before going on to study at the American Academy in Rome.[2]
Career
Romano painted portraits of figures such as Albert Einstein, Foster Furcolo, Pope John XXIII (1967),[8] John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln (1957),[9] and Sara Roosevelt, the mother of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1935).[6][7]
Romano had his first solo exhibition in 1928, at the Rehs Galleries in New York City.[7]
In 1937 the Federal Arts Project underwrote a project undertaken by Romano with the help of several students to install six mural panels in the Springfield Main Post Office.[2]
During World War II, Romano's paintings became "darker and more melancholic".[7][10]
Romano illustrated a 1947 English translation of Dante's Divine Comedy.[11]
Romano later installed a mosaic of "Moses rendering judgment" at the New York Civil Court, which was dedicated in 1961.[6][12]