Nick de Angelis  1921 - 2004) 

Nick de Angelis, was born in New Jersey as Nicholas Angelo but later changed his surname to the original family name: de Angelis. He served in Europe, Africa, and Italy in the U.S. Army, where he was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.

His childhood drawings decorated the walls of his attic bedroom until the 1990s when the house burned down and only a ghostly shell remained. In his early career de Angelis painted exquisite watercolors of street life and café scenes, paintings of Paris and the Seine, and of New York co_ee houses. De Angelis’ work has evolved signi_cantly during the more than forty years he created art, morphing from realistic to the highly abstract. He worked in whatever media was close at hand in his 57th Street apartment, where he could walk to the Art Students League. His color choices ranged from delicate pastels to bright and clashing primary colors to somber blacks and grays. His portraiture was magni_cent combining both human and living creatures with robotic and mechanical elements. After a long career as an illustrator for various top agencies in New York, de Angelis, in the 1960s, dedicated his life solely to his passion for painting and sculpting, which consumed him to the very end of his life.
After Nick’s death, in 2004, of pancreatic cancer, his wife Josiane de Angelis, was left with a monumental body of work – the content is estimated to be thousands of sketches, drawings, watercolors and sculptures. A body of forty years of solitary artwork has never been shown to the public.

De Angelis was a life member of the Art Students League of New York and a life member of the American Watercolor Society,where he was appointed vice president, and jury member of A.W.S. for group shows and traveling exhibitions to National Museums.

His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions, including Peter Dietch, NYC, Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY, F.A.R. Gallery, NYC, National Arts Club, NYC, Allan Stone Gallery, NYC, and Salmagundi, NYC.