Antonio DeVity

“Notre Dame Paris”

Circa 1970

Antonio DeVity was a pseudonym used by the Italian artist Umberto Marone (1901–1993) born in Reggio-Calabria City on February 1901. His life can be described with a few sentences: his big passion for painting and art, and his great love for Paris, the city where his grandmother was originally from. His father was a very well known painter in Naples at the beginning of 1900, and he introduced young Antonio to the world of art. Antonio lived in Rome where he was taught by Balla, and also he attended Naples Liceo d'Arte and at the age of 17 he moved to his beloved Paris, in a small attic room near Place Saint-Michel, where he became friend and admirer of many well known Parisian painters of that time. In those years he had the opportunity to attend the “École des beaux arts”, and to appreciate those places that were often represented in his paintings, including Notre Dame, the Café de la Paix and the Moulin Rouge among others. During his time in Paris he first started using the pseudonym name "Antonio DeVity". This choice along with giving homage to his beloved Paris, contributed to creating an aura of mystery about the painter. After his return to Naples, Umberto founded a School which rapidly became a prestigious Art Studio, which constituted an important meeting place for artists from Southern Italy. In 1950, as soon as he was able to, he opened his art studio in Naples that in less than 10 years became a very important meeting place for Neapolitan artists. During the 1960's DeVity art studio became one of the most important Neapolitan school, with more than 20 painters who studied with him, and in the late 1960s, the Art Studio was directed by Umberto's son Achille. Antonio DeVity's first exhibitions dated back to 1953 in Bruxelles, 1955 in Marrakech, 1956 in Madrid, 1957 in Morocco and the followers especially in France, between Paris and other big cities. His works were present at many exhibitions in Paris and Rome and also many of his pieces can be found in private collections and at the picture galleries at Rome, Paris, Bern, Naples, Florence. He spent his later life in Naples until his death in 1993 and the art studio was closed a few years earlier of his passing.