Mario DeFerrante was born in Naples, Italy on Nov. 29, 1898. DeFerrante studied at the Istituto delle Belle Arti in Naples and served a two-year apprenticeship with Antonio Mancini. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1922, he worked in New York City doing portraits and murals until 1935 when he moved to southern California. After settling in Glendale, he taught at Barnsdale College during 1970-84. His early paintings are representational and later ones abstract. He died in Martinez, CA on Dec. 7, 1992.

Member: Western Serigraph Institute of Los Angeles.

Exhibits: Biennale de Milano (1st prize); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1952; Martinez Civic Arts Gallery, 1996 (retrospective).

Works held in Public Places: Yale, Princeton, & Brigham Young universities; U.S. Bureau of Information (Washington); Library of Congress; Philadelphia Library; Cleveland Museum.

One of the original followers of the Italian Manifesto of Futurism, Mario de Ferrante studied with Antonio Mancini in Italy before coming to the United States in 1922. The first years after his arrival, he did murals and serigraphs, becoming one of the first members of the Los Angeles Serigraphy Institute of Los Angeles. He established a studio in Glendale.

As a Futurist, he believed that artists should tear down all past traditions in painting and devote themselves to subjects of science and industry, the key to human liberation. In style, Futurists strove to achieve a strong sense of dynamism.

Mario deFerrante (Italian-American, 1901-1992)

There has been some discrepancy regarding this artist’s birthdate... whose correct birthdate is listed on various documents & naturalization records as November 29, 1901 (which the artist had attested to on various documents and through descendants records too), even though the California Death Index states the incorrect birthdate as November 29, 1898 (for which he is most often listed as 1898-1992) and he & his second wife’s grave/crypt marker also incorrectly shows an 1898 birthdate for Mario.

Mario deFerrante was born on November 29, 1901 in Naples, Italy to Francesco “Frank” deFerrante (1870- ) and Emilia (née Termini) deFerrante (1872- ) and he graduated for the Royal Institute of Belle Arti in Naples with a Master’s Degree in art. He immigrated to the United States on October 2, 1919 (not 1922 as some sources state) on the S.S. Dante Alighieri into New York, and he was listed as a designer who resided at 110 West Street in Manhattan, NYC. The artist’s name is also sometimes listed as: Mario DeFerrante, Mario De Ferrante or Mario Deferrante.

Mario’s first marriage was on August 10, 1922 to Guiseppina “AKA Josephine and Lena” Dolores (née Ferrara) deFerrante in NYC (1908-1980) with whom they had two sons, Robert “Bob” Charles DeFerrante (1924-2015) and Frank Louis deFerrante, Sr. (1925-1999). During the Depression, Mario worked for the WPA (Works Progress Administration) as a painter and also relied on his art training for auxiliary employment painting murals for churches, apartment houses and private individuals. DeFerrante also worked for the Walt Disney Studios in New York before the couple moved out to Los Angeles, CA in 1936 and settled in Hollywood, CA. Mario and a partner ventured into a short-lived restaurant business, where they opened ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ located on Hollywood Blvd. & Vine Street, which only lasted a few years before he and his wife moved to Tujunga, CA where he built his home and studio in 1942 located at 7076 Highcliff Trail. He was an early member of the Western Serigraph Institute of Los Angeles (WSI) where his early serigraphs found a national market and for many years, he sustained himself solely on the sales of his serigraphs, paintings, murals and portraiture.

In 1944, the couple divorced in Reno, Nevada and Josephine remarried soon after to Anthony Matullo. On September 8, 1952, Mario got remarried to his second wife, Anna Maria (née Turriziani) deFerrante (1906-1992). Mario became a naturalized citizen on November 11, 1954 in Los Angeles and by the late 1950s, he maintained a studio at 411-1/2 East Broadway in Glendale, CA. Between 1970-1984, he was a Professor of Art at Barnsdale College in Hollywood and was included in group exhibitions at the LA County Museum of Art, Brigham Young University in Provo, UT as well as the Biennale de Milan in Italy. He won many awards for his artwork over the course of his career and is represented in the collections of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Yale, Princeton and Brigham Young Universities as well as the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH. Mario deFerrante died on December 7, 1992 in Contra Costa, CA, sadly just a week after his wife Anna’s passing on November 30, and the couple was interned in Oakmont Memorial Park, Lafayette, Contra Costa County, California.

(Compiled & written by Mark Strong of Meibohm Fine Arts, Inc., East Aurora, NY)