Daniel Celentano

Daniel Celentano (1902–1980) was an American Scene artist who made realistic paintings of everyday life in New York, particularly within the Italian neighborhood of East Harlem where he lived. During the Great Depression he painted murals in the same style for the Public Works of Art Project and the Federal Art Project.

Daniel Celentano
Daniel Celentano, Self Portrait
Born
Daniel Ralph Celentano

December 21, 1902[1]
Manhattan, New York
Died1980
NationalityAmerican
Known forArtist

Art training

The son of Italian immigrants, Daniel Celentano was born into a large family within an Italian neighborhood of Manhattan.[1][2][note 1] A childhood polio attack left him with only partial use of his right leg. Made homebound by this disability he was unable to attend school and, recognizing his artistic skill while he was still a boy, his parents were able to arrange for art teachers to tutor him at home.[1] Through hard work and perseverance he regained control over his leg by the age of twelve and at that time became the first pupil of the social realist painter Thomas Hart Benton.[1][2][5]

In 1918 he won scholarships that enabled him to attend Charles Hawthorne's Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, New York School of Fine And Applied Art in Greenwich Village, and the National Academy of Design in New York's Upper East Side.[1][4] The Cape Cod School taught students during the summer months and the other two gave classes during the rest of the year.

Artistic career
Daniel Celentano, "Supper Hour," pen and ink wash on light cream wove card stock, circa 1930, 11 x 14 inches (280 x 355 mm.)
Daniel Celentano, "Festival," 1934, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard, 48⅛ x 60⅛, (122.3 x 152.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor, created for the Public Works of Art Project of the United States Government. This painting is also called "Festa di Monte Carmela." It was included in an exhibition called "1934: A New Deal for Artists," in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

During the 1930s and until the outbreak of World War II Celentano participated in group shows at galleries in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, and other American cities.[6] His work was first shown to the public in an exhibition of works selected by Alfred Stieglitz that was held at the Opportunity Gallery in 1930.[1][7] In his review of this show, the art critic for The New York Times, Edward Alden Jewell, included a painting of Celentano's called "Funeral" among ones that he especially recommended.[7][note 2] Celentano's drawing, "Supper Hour," is an early work that is typical in subject and treatment of much that he produced later in his career. It shows a family of eight in a kitchen getting ready to share an evening meal together. From their attitudes and actions it appears that they spend much of their home life in this one room. Although crowded together, they appear to be relaxed and self-assured. His painting, "Festival," of a few years later, shows the boisterous community of East Harlem in holiday mode. The Smithsonian's exhibition label says, "This painting fairly bursts with the raucous sounds, pungent smells, and vibrant characters of Manhattan's ethnic street life."[9][note 3]

Between 1935 and 1939 Celentano exhibited regularly at the Walker Gallery.[6][11][12][13][14][note 4] In 1939 his first, and apparently his only one-man show took place there.[4] Of this show a critic for the New York Sun said "He paints the humble domestic life that he knows with a frankness as to its happenings, a sympathy and a tireless eye for detail that command respect, if not enthusiasm. The curious may learn all about that life from his paintings without going to the trouble of doing settlement work or running the slightest risk of getting out of their class."[4] His shows at the Walker Gallery produced institutional sales to the Carnegie Institute, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Museum.[16][17]

Between 1935 and the outbreak of World War II Celentano participated in group exhibitions held in museums and public collections in New York and other major cities, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy, the Whitney Museum, and the Golden Gate International Exposition.[6][16][18][19][20][21][22][23]

From 1934 to 1941 Celentano was employed as a mural painter in federal art projects.[24] During the short lifetime of the Federal Works of Art Project he helped William C. Palmer paint murals for the new Queens General Hospital in Jamaica.[17][25] In 1936 he painted a mural called "Commerce" for the Flushing branch of the Queens Borough Public Library[17][26] A critic for the New York Times pointed out this mural's "realistic illustrational" style noting that it depicted "rural fields and the Manhattan skyline, with crowds of dock loaders and businessmen flanking the central image of an artist (possibly Celentano himself) sitting at a drafting table, a worker among workers."[27] In 1938, commissioned by the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture, he made a mural called The Country Store and Post Office for the U.S. Post Office in Vidalia, Georgia.[28][29] He also made murals for two high schools, Andrew Jackson (1940) and St. Albans (1941), both in Queens.[30][31] In 1940 he painted a large mural called "Children in Constructive Recreation and Cultural Activity" in Public School 150 (Long Island City, Queens).[30][32] After the United States entered World War II he took a job in the art department of the Grumman Aircraft Corporation in Bethpage, Long Island, where he made a mural called "The Flight of Man."[2]

Parents and immediate family

Both of his parents had been born in Italy: his father, Vito, about 1879, and his mother, Maria, about 1880.[33][note 5] Celentano was the second of their eleven children who survived infancy.[note 6] During the years when Celentano was studying art and for much of the rest of his life, he and his family lived on Pleasant Avenue in East Harlem.[note 7][note 8] He was schooled at home until, as a teenager, he overcame the atrophy of his right leg.[1] In 1928 he married Marie Steneck.[note 9] In 1930, Celentano's wife gave birth to a daughter.[48]

Celentano married a second time to Margaret Mary Dwyer on June 24, 1945, in Astoria, Queens. Their son Daniel Michael Celentano was born in November 1946. Celentano and his wife eventually moved to St. James, Long Island, where he died of cancer in 1980.[1]

Other names

Celentano was known as Daniel R. Celentano and Daniel Ralph Celentano as well as Daniel Celentano.[2][43]

Notes
  1. Celentano's grandson, Gregory M. Celentano, said that Celentano's birth name was Donato, later Anglicized to Daniel.[3] One source says he was born in the Little Italy of Lower Manhattan.[2] Others say he was born in the Italian neighborhood of East Harlem.[4][3]
  2. The Opportunity Gallery was founded in 1927 by an artist and a small group of patrons. Located in the Art Center on East 56th Street in Manhattan, it offered free exhibition space to new artists and sought no profit from sales of their work. Each exhibition was selected by a different artist.[8]
  3. In 2009, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Public Works of Art Project, the Smithsonian American Art Museum prepared a traveling exhibition of paintings from the museum's collection that were created for the program. Called "1934: A New Deal for Artists," it included works by a broad range of American artists produced between mid-December 1933 to June 1934.[10]
  4. Located on East 57th Street in Manhattan, the Walker Art Gallery was founded by Maynard Walker in 1935. Specializing in the work of American regionalist painters, its stable of artists included Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry.[15]
  5. The name of Celentano's mother is variously given as Maria, Mary, Maria Covanni, Felicia Coivono, Felicia Cainavo, Maria Felicia, and Mary Cavana.[34][35][36][37]
  6. There were fifteen children in all.[1] The names and approximate birth years of Celentano's surviving siblings were Anthony Celentano, 1899; Joseph Celentano, 1905; Angelina Celentano, 1907; Camella Celentano, 1909; Laurie Celentano, 1911; Rosco Celentano, 1913; Rose Celentano, 1916.[38] Angela died in 1924 at the age of nineteen, just nine months after her marriage to a man named Louis Rafanelli.[36][39] Anthony died in 1947 at the age of 49.[37]
  7. Pleasant Avenue runs for six-blocks between 114th and 120th Streets. Originally called Avenue A, it lies in line with that avenue, Sutton Place, and York Avenue beyond the west bend in the East River. The area was rural through much of the nineteenth century. By the 1890s Italian immigrants had pushed out most of the Irish and German families who had settled there in the mid-century years and a shifting border separated the Italians of East Harlem from the African Americans who dominated Central Harlem.[40]
  8. In 1939 Celentano told a reporter that he was born in East Harlem and there is some evidence that Vito and Maria Celentano and their family were living at the southern end of Pleasant Avenue at the time the New York Census was taken in 1915.[4][41] They had moved to West 35th Street in Midtown Manhattan by the time of the 1920 U.S. Census, but by 1924 the parents had returned (or perhaps lived for the first time) in East Harlem. A public record of that time gives their address as an apartment on the northern end of the avenue at 433 Pleasant Avenue and there they remained there for most or all of the rest of their lives.[24][38][36][42] When he married in 1928, Celentano was living in an apartment a little to the south on the same block and by the time the 1930 U.S. Census was taken, he, his wife, and his infant daughter, were living in an adjoining building in which other families named Celentano also had rented apartments.[43]
  9. There is some confusion about the name of Celentano's wife. New York marriage records list her as Marie L. Sturck and the 1930 U.S. Census gives the name as Starck.[43][44] Accounts of marriages in local newspapers list her as Marie L. Steneck.[45][46] It is likely these were all misspellings of the same name. However, the U.S. Census for 1930 gives Celentano's wife's name as Ida Celantano while the 1940 Census gives Marie Celentano.[24] There is little evidence that Ida and Marie Celantano were the same person. Their ages match, but Ida was listed as having been born in New Jersey and Marie in New York and Ida's parents were shown to be from Italy while Marie's were from New Jersey and New York.[44][47]

References
  1. Stefan C. Schatzki (May 1993). "Medicine in American Art; The Agnew Clinic" (PDF). American Journal of Roentgenology. American Roentgen Ray Society. 160 (5): 936. doi:10.2214/ajr.160.5.8470607. PMID 8470607. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
  2. Barbara Wells Sarudy. "1930s America's Great Depression - Daniel Ralph Celentano 1902–1980". [weblog] It's About Time; Searching centuries of Art, Nature, & Everyday Life for Unique Perspectives, Uncommon Grace, & Unexpected Insights. Archived from the original on 2016-04-20. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
  3. "The 1930s Little Italy of a New York–born painter". Ephemeral New York. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  4. "Sheeler's Art in Retrospect; Modern Museum Makes Comprehensive Display; Other One-man Exhibitions". New York Sun. 1939-10-07. p. 9.
  5. "Paintings to please a variety of palates". Boston Globe. Boston, Mass. 2006-11-12. p. H40.
  6. "Daniel Celentano - Artist, Fine Art Prices, Auction Records for Daniel Celentano". artnet.com. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
  7. Edward Alden Jewell (1930-02-23). "VARIETY INCARNATION: As Lancelot Gobbo Would Say, If He Were Here to Tramp About Among Galleries". New York Times. p. 124. ... the Opportunity Gallery at the Art Centre continues its good work with one of the best performances of its career. The pictures in the present group were selected by Alfred Stieglitz, and a very interesting group it is, reflecting much individual promise and also the taste of the mentor responsible for the current choosing... Naturally, there are certain pictures in the group that especially recommend themselves to the visitor's attention: ... Daniel R. Celentano's amusing 'Funeral,' ...
  8. "Festival by Daniel Celentano". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  9. "Exhibitions: 1934: A New Deal for Artists". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Archived from the original on 2011-08-24. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  10. "Attractions in the Galleries". New York Sun. 1935-05-21. p. 10.
  11. Edward Alden Jewell (1935-11-30). "YOUNGER ARTISTS IN WALKER SHOW: Gallery Brings Forward New Group, Including Doris Lee, Joe Jones and Molly Luce. SEVERAL ARE WELL KNOWN Dudley Morris, Daniel Celentano, David McCosh and Reginald Wilson Are in Roster". New York Times. p. 13.
  12. "New Shows About Town". New York Times. 1938-07-10. p. 132.
  13. "Reviews in Brief". New York Post. 1939-06-03. p. A3.
  14. "Maynard Walker Dies at 89; Art Dealer Almost 40 Years". New York Times. 1985-08-23. p. D17.
  15. "Whitney Museum Buys More American Art". New York Sun. 1935-12-11. p. 12.
  16. "Daniel Celentano". D. Wigmore Fine Art. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  17. "SHOW IN BROOKLYN OF HUMOR IN ART: Drawings, Oils and WaterColors, Sculpture in Many Media Included in Exhibit". New York Times. 1935-11-22. p. 21.
  18. "Carl Milles Completes Monument To Swedish Settlers in Delaware: Hudson Walker Galleries Show Kathe Kollwitz Works of Art. Retrospective Exhibition to Open May 11 at Metropolitan". Washington Post. Washington, D.C. 1937-04-25. p. TR7.
  19. "Oil Paintings Displayed by Syracusans; 26 oil paintings by living American artists at Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts". Syracuse Journal. Syracuse, N.Y. 1937-12-08. p. 22. Eight of the paintings purchased by the Whitney Museum from the 1937 annual exhibition have been loaned to the Syracuse Museum and are included in the group. These include ... "The First Born" by Daniel R. Celentano ... "
  20. "CONTEMPORARY ART ON VIEW NEXT WEEK: Whitney Museum to Open Its Annual Show Wednesday--16 States Represented 109 PAINTERS TO EXHIBIT Non-Jury Method of Selection Retained--26 New Names Included in List List of Exhibitors Artist Veterans Organize". New York Times. 1938-10-29. p. 22.
  21. Edward Alden Jewell (1941-11-12). "WHITNEY MUSEUM OPENS NEW SHOW: Annual Exhibition Is Confined to Work of Artists 40 Years of Age or Younger FRESHNESS THE KEYNOTE Ganso Canvases and Papers of Water-Colors Are Put on View in Separate Display". New York Times. p. 21.
  22. C H Bonte (1940-01-28). "Academy's 135th Annual Exhibition". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Penn. p. 16. Daniel Celentano's "Just Born," in which the art of the painter touches friendly hands with that of today's stage and cinema to presenting the initial phases of human life,... is apt to evoke vigorous and varied comment...
  23. "Daniel Celentano, Assembly District 20, Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, United States". "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch; citing enumeration district (ED) 31-1752, sheet 8A, family 152, NARA digital publication T627 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), roll 2666. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  24. Helen Segall (1934-09-23). "Artist Completing Murals for New Queens Hospital". Long Island Sunday Press. Jamaica, N.Y. p. 4.
  25. William Zimmer (1993-11-21). "Worlds of Work and Play in a Tribute to New Deal Artists". New York Times. p. WC24.
  26. Holland Cotter (1993-11-26). "Amid Depression Sorrow, a Celebratory Message". New York Times. p. C31.
  27. Harriet Senie (15 July 2014). Critical Issues in Public Art: Content, Context, and Controversy. Smithsonian. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-58834-434-2.
  28. "Vidalia, GA New Deal Art". WPAmurals.com. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  29. "Art Body Indorses WPA Mural of Children at Play and Study". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, N.Y. 1940-11-17. p. 8.
  30. "Picture History of a High School Student's Day in St. Albans; 12 murals in school's cafeteria by Ruth Reeves". Long Island Daily Press. Jamaica, N.Y. 1941-12-06. p. 3.
  31. "WPA Artists Finish Murals at Naval Station, P.S. 150". Long Island Star Journal. Long Island City, N.Y. 1940-11-18. p. 9.
  32. "Vito Cilentano in entry for Antonio Cilentano, 10 Aug 1904". "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909," database, FamilySearch; citing Birth, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,984,243. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  33. "Felicia Coivono Celentano in entry for Angiolina Celentano, 29 Aug 1906". "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909," database, FamilySearch; citing Birth, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,985,143. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  34. "Felicia Coivono Celentano in entry for Angiolina Celentano, 29 Aug 1906". "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909," database, FamilySearch; citing Birth, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,985,143. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  35. "Louis Rafanelli and Angela Celentano, 30 Mar 1924". "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940," database, FamilySearch; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,643,122. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
  36. "Anthony F Celentano, 14 Jul 1947". "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch; citing Death, Bronx, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,200,129. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  37. "Daniel Celentano in household of Vito Celentano, Manhattan Assembly District 3, New York, New York, United States". "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch; citing sheet 1B, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,821,190. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  38. "Vito Celantina in entry for Angela Raffanelli, 03 Sep 1924". "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,031,720. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
  39. "Race-War in Harlem; Little Italy's Contested Growth Northward". New York Evening Post. 1896-07-18. p. 2.
  40. "Carmela Celantino, New York, New York, New York, United States". "New York State Census, 1915," database, FamilySearch; from "New York, State Census, 1915," database and images; citing p. 51, line 17, state population census schedules, 1915, New York State Archives, Albany. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  41. "Vito Celentano, 17 Mar 1941". "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,130,089. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  42. "Daniel R. Celentaro and Marie L. Sturck, 24 Nov 1928". "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940," database, FamilySearch; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,653,663. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
  43. "Charles Starck, 1930". "United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  44. "Marriage Licenses". Standard Union. Brooklyn, N.Y. 1928-11-13. p. 23. Marie L. Steneck, 19, Newtown ave, Astoria, and Daniel R. Celentano, 26, 419 Pleasant ave. Manhattan
  45. "List of Marriage Licenses Issued in Queens". Daily Star. Queens, N.Y. 1928-11-13. p. 7. Daniel R. Celentino, twenty-six, 419 Pleasant avenue, Manhattan, and Marie L. Steneck, nineteen, Newtown road, Long Island City
  46. "Daniel Celentano 1930". "United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  47. As with his wife, there is uncertainty about Celentano's daughter (or daughters). The 1930 U.S. Census lists his only child as a daughter named Lucy, born that year.[47] The 1940 U.S. Census lists a daughter named Dana who was nine at the time the census was taken.[24]
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