Arthur Dove

Arthur Garfield Dove was an American artist. An early American modernist

American modernism

American modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic...

, he is often considered the first American abstract painter

Abstract art

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...

.

Youth and education

Dove was born to a wealthy family in Canandaigua, New York

Canandaigua (city), New York

Canandaigua is a city in Ontario County, New York, USA, of which it is the county seat. The population was 11,264 at the 2000 census...

. His parents, William George and Anna Elizabeth, were of English ancestry. William Dove was interested in politics and named his son Arthur Garfield, after the Republican candidates for President and Vice-President in the 1880 election

United States presidential election, 1880

The United States presidential election of 1880 was largely seen as a referendum on the end of Reconstruction in Southern states carried out by the Republicans. There were no pressing issues of the day save tariffs, with the Republicans supporting higher tariffs and the Democrats supporting lower...

, James Garfield

James Garfield

James Abram Garfield served as the 20th President of the United States, after completing nine consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Garfield's accomplishments as President included a controversial resurgence of Presidential authority above Senatorial courtesy in executive...

 and Chester Arthur, who ultimately won the vote. Arthur Dove grew up loving the outdoors on a farm; however, his father was a very successful businessman who owned a brickyard (along with city real estate) and expected his son to become wealthy. Dove's childhood interests included playing the piano, painting lessons, and being a pitcher on a high school baseball team. As a child, he was befriended by a neighbor, Newton Weatherby, a naturalist who helped form Dove's appreciation of nature. Weatherby was also an amateur painter who gave Dove pieces of leftover canvas to work with.

Dove attended Hobart College

Hobart College

Hobart College can refer to:* A college which is part of the very-closely-associated Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, U.S.* Hobart College , a secondary school in Tasmania, Australia....

 and Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, and graduated from Cornell in 1903. Dove was chosen to illustrate the Cornell University yearbook. Dove's illustrations proved popular because they brought life to the characters and situations they depicted. After graduation, he became a well known commercial illustrator

Illustrator

An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, working for Harper's Magazine

Harper's Magazine

Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...

and The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...

. Dove's parents were upset at his choice to become an artist, instead of a more profitable profession that his Ivy League degree would have enabled, and they would prove unsympathetic to the difficulties that came with a career in art.

Europe

In 1907, Dove and his first wife traveled to France and moved to Paris, then the world's art capital. They made short trips to both Italy and Spain. While there, Dove joined a group of experimental artists from the United States, which included Alfred Henry Maurer

Alfred Henry Maurer

Alfred Henry Maurer was an American modernist painter. He exhibited his work in avant-garde circles internationally and in New York City during the early 20th century.-Biography:...

. Dove and Maurer remained friends until Maurer's suicide in 1932. While in Europe, Dove was introduced to new painting styles, in particular the Fauvist

Fauvism

Fauvism is the style of les Fauves , a short-lived and loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism...

 works of Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...

, and he exhibited at the annual Autumn Salon in 1908 and 1909. Feeling a clearer sense as an artist, he returned to New York. His return to commercial illustration was unsatisfying, so Dove moved out of New York to make a living off farming and fishing while devoting the rest of his time to painting. His son, William C. Dove, was born on July 4, 1909.

Stieglitz and New York

When Dove returned to America in 1909 he met Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...

, probably by way of Maurer's written introduction.. Stieglitz was a well known photographer and gallery owner who was very active in promoting modern art in America, including works by European artists that had never been seen before in the U.S. Dove decided to quit working as an illustrator but was in need of artistic identity along with emotional bolstering and Stieglitz filled both these roles. The photographer was 16 years older than Dove and his urban, Jewish and European cultural roots were in contrast to Dove's rural Anglo-Saxon Protestant heritage. Dove was said to be gentle, quiet, and a good friend while Stieglitz was known as being argumentative and shrewd. They found their common ground in the idea that art forms should embody modern spiritual values not materialism and tradition. With Stiegliz's support, Dove produced what are known as the first purely abstract paintings to come out of America. Dove’s works were based on natural forms and he referred to his type of abstraction as “extraction” where, in essence, he extracted the essential forms of a scene from nature.

Dove exhibited his works at Stieglitz’s 291 gallery in 1910 as part of the show "Younger American Painters", which also included Dove's old friend Maurer. Dove showed one painting, a large still life painted in France entitled “The Lobster”, which would be his last representational work. Stieglitz provided Dove with his first one-man show in 1912 at the 291. The show, which included a group of Dove's pastels that came to be known as "The Ten Commandments", was the first public exhibition of abstract art by an American. In the two years after meeting Stieglitz, Dove became a leader in international art developments. From 1912 to 1946 Dove showed his work annually at Stieglitz’s galleries: 291, Intimate Gallery, and An American Place. Dove used a wide range of media over the course of his career, sometimes in unconventional combinations. Dove did a series of experimental collage works in the 1920s. He also experimented with techniques, combining paints like hand mixed oil or tempera over a wax emulsion.

Patronage from Duncan Phillips

In spite of support from various members of the art community, it was often necessary for Dove to earn money through farming, fishing and commercial illustration. Dove’s most consistent supporter was Duncan Phillips

Duncan Phillips (art collector)

Duncan Phillips was a Washington, DC, based art collector and critic who played a seminal role in introducing America to modern art. The grandson of James H. Laughlin, a banker and co-founder of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company, Phillips was born in Pittsburgh and moved with his family to...

, founder of the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., which now holds the majority of Dove’s work. Dove’s work convinced Philips that abstract was an artistic process, not just an art style. Stieglitz’s gallery was first visited by Phillips because of Dove, and he continued to return to see Dove's work. In exchange for first choice of paintings from each exhibition, Phillips paid Dove a commission of $50.00 a month. Interestingly, Dove met Phillips only once in his lifetime, in 1936. In 1937 Phillips purchased Goin Fishin for $2,000.00, then the largest sum paid for any of Dove's work. Phillips also purchased “Huntington Harbor 1.” Dove produced about twenty-five assemblages between 1924 and 1930.

Dove and Helen Torr

He spent a seven-year period on a houseboat called Mona with Helen Torr, known as "Reds" for the fiery color of her hair. Torr was also a painter. Although the psychological consequences benefited Dove’s art, his life with Torr was difficult. Florence Dove never cared about Dove's passion for art, and was more socially inclined. After 25 years of marriage, Dove left Florence. Florence would not grant him a divorce and flatly refused to let him see his son. When he departed, he left behind everything except his copies of Camera Work

Camera Work

Camera Work was a quarterly photographic journal published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917. It is known for its many high-quality photogravures by some of the most important photographers in the world and its editorial purpose to establish photography as a fine art...

and Stieglitz’s letters. When Dove’s wife Florence died unexpectedly, he paid $250.00 for the funeral expenses and sent flowers, but did not go to the funeral in Geneva. Although distressed about her death, he was now able to see his son and marry Torr. For the first time in eight years, Dove met with his then nineteen-year-old son, Bill, who was also an artist. The two established a friendship and later in life his son became a help to Dove with creating a technique for silvering frames. Dove and Torr were not able to wed immediately as Torr had not divorced her first husband. Dove and Torr did eventually marry on April 1932 in the New York City Hall with a brief service and using a ten-cent store ring. Dove identified himself as a "frame maker" on his marriage registry. The 1933 Gallery 291 exhibition was the only time Stieglitz allowed Torr and Dove to exhibit together. "Seven Americans" brought Dove back into the coverage of major newspapers and art magazines, as well as back into the public eye. Dove's work had an impact on later abstract

Abstract art

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...

 landscape

Landscape

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

 painters, such as Hatton

Julian Hatton

Julian Burroughs Hatton III is an American landscape abstract artist from New York City whose paintings have appeared in galleries in the United States and France. The New York Times described his painting style as "vibrant, playful, semi-abstract landscapes" while New York Sun art critic John...

 and O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...

, in terms of having an "unbridled love of pure, hot color."

Arthur Dove-Helen Torr Cottage

In July 1924 when Arthur Dove and Helen Torr sailed into Huntington Harbor aboard their 42-foot yawl, Mona, they could not have anticipated the extent to which Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

’s North Shore

North Shore (Long Island)

The North Shore of Long Island is the area along Long Island's northern coast, bordering Long Island Sound. The region has long been the most affluent on Long Island, as well as the most affluent in the New York metropolitan area, which has earned it the nickname "the Gold Coast." Though some...

 would inspire some of their greatest paintings. They lived in Halesite until the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 when both Dove and Torr moved back to the Dove's estate located in Geneva

Geneva, New York

Geneva is a city in Ontario and Seneca counties in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 13,617 at the 2000 census. Some claim it is named after the city and canton of Geneva in Switzerland. Others believe the name came from confusion over the letters in the word "Seneca" written in cursive...

. Longing to be back on Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

, in 1938 they moved back into their first home, a former post office and general store on Center Shore Road in Centerport, New York

Centerport, New York

Centerport is a hamlet in Suffolk County, New York on the notably affluent North Shore of Long Island. Formerly known as Little Cow Harbor about 1700, Centreport in 1836, and then the present Centerport after 1895...

. They purchased the house for $980.00. Their tiny, one-room cottage stood on the edge of the Titus Mill Pond. Almost immediately, Dove was found to have pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

; he eventually suffered from a heart attack and was diagnosed with a debilitating kidney disorder. In terrible health for the remainder of his days, he lived quietly, finally about to devote himself entirely to painting, and focusing on the inspiration of his surroundings and his home. Some of the most powerful paintings of his career, including Indian Summer, were painted in Centerport. Red remained in the house on the millpond but never painted again but after her death in 1967, both Red and Dove had their work hung together in The Museum of Modern Art in 1979.

Arthur Dove-Helen Torr Cottage was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 2000.

Later life and death

Dove suffered from heart disease and Bright's disease

Bright's disease

Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....

 through the late 1930s. He suffered a heart attack in 1939 and his health never fully recovered. In 1946 Dove had his last show with nine new paintings and made his final visit to the gallery and saw Stieglitz for the last time. In July of that year their first grandchild Toni was born. A little more than a month after the show closed in July, Stieglitz died of heart failure. Badly shaken from his friend’s death, Dove lived for only four more months. Although he became partially paralyzed by a stroke, he continued with Torr's help by guiding the brush as he painted until he collapsed and died at Huntington Hospital. Arthur Dove died on November 23, 1946 following a second heart attack and kidney failure. In October, just before his death, Dove wrote to Phillips for the last time:

You have no idea what sending on those checks to me at this time. After fighting for an idea all your life I realize that your backing has saved it for me and meant to thank you with all my heart and soul for what you have done. It has been marvelous. So many letters have been written and not mailed and owing to having been in bed a great deal of time this summer, the paintings were about all I could muster up enough energy to do what I considered the best of my ability. Just before Stieglitz’s death I took some paintings to him that I considered as having something new in the. He immediately walked right up to them and spoke of the new ideas. His intuition in that way was remarkable and I am so glad to have been allowed to live during his and your lifetimes. It has been a great privilege for which I am truly thankful.

Arthur Dove’s granddaughter is the interactive artist Toni Dove

Toni Dove

Toni Dove is a New York-based artist working primarily in electronic and interactive media. She is considered one of the pioneers of interactive cinema , and has shown work at ZKM, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Brooklyn Anchorage, and the Whitney Museum of American Art...

.

The Estate of Arthur Dove is represented by the Terry Dintenfass Gallery.

Selected list of works

• 1910 Abstraction No. 1 - 6
• 1911 Movement No. 1
• 1911 Nature Symbolized
• ca. 1911 Nature Symbolized, No. 2
• 1911 - 2 Sails
• ca. 1912 Plant Forms
• ca. 1912 - 3 A Walk: Poplars
• 1915 Plant Form
• 1917 - 20 Gear
• 1917 - 20 Thunderstorm
• 1920 Dark Abstraction (Woods)
• ca. 1921 Thunderstorm
• 1923 Moon and Sea II
• 1923 Chinese Music
• 1924 Sunrise
• 1924 "Huntington Harbor"
• 1924 Starry Heavens
• 1924 Nature Symbolized or Reefs
• 1925 The Intellectual
• 1925 Goin’ Fishin’
• 1925 The Critic
• 1926 Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz
• 1927 George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue Part 1
• 1928 "Snow and Water"
• 1928 Composition
• 1928 Sea Gull Motive (also known as Sea Thunder or The Wave)
• 1929 "Alfie’s Delight"
• 1929 "Silver Sun"
• 1929 Foghorns
• 1929 Wind (number 1)
• 1929 Harbor in Light
• 1929 Moth Dance
• 1930 - ? Brick Barge with Landscape
• 1931 Ice and Clouds
• 1931 Fields of Grain as Seen from Train
• 1931 Ferry Boat Wreck
• 1931 Pine Tree
• 1931 Two Forms
• 1931 Abstract from Threshing Engine
• 1931 Steam Boat - Northport
• 1932 Gale
• 1932 Dawn III
• 1932 Sunday
• ca. 1933 Sun Drawing Water
• 1934 Trees
• 1934 Trees II
• 1934 Brickyard Shed
• 1934 - ? Sowing Wheat
• 1935 "Moon"
• 1935 "Corn Crib"
• 1935 Red Sun
• 1935 " Cow #1"
• 1935 Snowstorm
• 1935 Barns
• 1935 Tree I
• 1936 Windy Morning
• 1937 Me and the Moon
• 1937 Happy Landscape
• 1937 - ? Water Swirl, Canandaigua Outlet
• 1938 "City Moon"
• 1938 Shore Front
• 1938 Tanks
• 1938 Holbrook’s Bridge to the Northwest
• 1938 Swing Music (Louis Armstrong)
• 1939 Continuity
• 1940 Abstract Still Life
• 1940 Syosset
• 1940 Black and White
• 1941 Our House
• 1941 Pyramid Formation
• 1941 The Brothers #1 Honolulu Academy of Arts
  Honolulu Academy of Arts
  The Honolulu Academy of Arts is an art museum in Honolulu in the state of Hawaii. Since its founding in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke and opening April 8, 1927, its collections have grown to over 40,000 works of art.-Description:...
  
  
• 1941 Landscape
• 1942 The Brothers
• 1943 Space Divided by Line Motive (U.S.A.)
• 1943 Sun
• 1943 Sand and Sea
• 1936 - 44 Fire the Sauerkraut Factory, West X, New York
• 1944 That Red One
• 1944 High Noon
• 1945 Figure 4
• ca. 1946 Untitled (Abstraction)

Exhibitions

• 1940-1946 Untitled from Sketchbook “E” Arkansas Arts Center
  Arkansas Arts Center
  One of the leading cultural institutions in the state, the Arkansas Arts Center is located on the corner of 9th and Commerce streets in MacArthur Park, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. The Arkansas Arts Center was founded in 1960, but the idea began in 1914, when the Fine Arts Club of Arkansas formed...
  
   American
• 1941 "Across the Road" oil on canvas Des Monies Art Center American
• 1941 "Centerport Series #16" watercolor and gouac Hirshhorn Museum American
• 1941 " Indian Summer" oil on canvas Heckscher Museum of Art
• 1943 "Space Divided" by Line Motive oil on canvas Corcoran Gallery of Art American

External links

• Arthur G. Dove Biography: Hollis Taggart Galleries
• Arthur and Helen Torr Dove papers online at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
• Arthur Dove (1880 - 1946) Artwork Images, Exhibitions, Reviews at wwar.com
• Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute 2009 exhibition "Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence"