Virginia Holton Admiral or Virginia De Niro was an American painter, poet and the mother of actor Robert De Niro.
11 Facts About Virginia Admiral
2.
Virginia Admiral studied painting under Hans Hofmann in New York, and her work was included in the Peggy Guggenheim collection.
3.
Virginia Admiral was raised as a Presbyterian but later became an atheist during her adulthood.
4.
Virginia Admiral's father had English, French, and Dutch ancestry, and her mother was of German descent.
5.
From 1932 to 1935 Virginia Admiral was an undergraduate at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she majored in journalism.
6.
Virginia Admiral studied at the Art Institute of Chicago under Hans Hofmann.
7.
In 1942, Virginia Admiral exhibited her art in the Springs Salon for Young Artists at Peggy Guggenheim's "Art of This Century Gallery" in Manhattan.
8.
Virginia Admiral was the first of her artist cohort to sell a painting to the Modern; Jackson Pollock had his first sale to the museum two years later.
9.
Virginia Admiral had a solo show at the same gallery in 1946 and her work was included in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection at the Venice Biennale in 1947.
10.
Virginia Admiral was active in political movements against American involvement in the Vietnam War and for the rights of artists and the poor.
11.
Virginia Admiral's work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.