Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
and
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
.
Early life
Dorothy Dehner was born on December 23, 1901, in
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
. Her father was a
pharmacist
A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...
and her mother was a passionate
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
. When Dehner was ten years old, her father died and her two aunts, Flo and Cora, moved in. Cora aroused Dehner's curiosity about foreign culture with extravagant tales of her travels abroad. Cora's tales would later provide the inspiration for Dehner's solo trip to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
in 1925.
In 1915, as a result of her mother's declining health, the family of four moved to
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
I ...
, where Dehner actively studied theater at the
Pasadena Playhouse
The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California, United States. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engage ...
.
[McCandless, p. 21] Dehner experienced heavy emotional loss over the next two years in which both her sister and mother died. In 1918, she moved to California to pursue her acting career and attended classes at the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1922, she pursued studies in theater at the
University of California Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
, but dropped out after one year to explore a stage career in New York. While in New York, she studied at the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related art ...
and starred in some
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
productions. Despite her moderate success as an actress, Dehner felt her expression was stifled by the theater. She was, to an extent, dictated by director, script, and venue.
Europe 1925
Following her brief stint with theater, Dehner decided to adventure to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
to seek new inspiration. She traveled alone as not to be hindered by any travel companions. Her first stop was
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, where she absorbed much of Italy's historic architecture. Following a quick stop in Switzerland, she flew to Paris where she was heavily influenced by
Cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
,
Fauvism
Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...
, and
Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
.
She was particularly taken with works by
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and committed herself to drawing throughout her year of travel. The 1925
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
show in Paris particularly overwhelmed her. Upon her return to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, Dehner enrolled at the
Art Students League
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at American Fine Arts Society, 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists ...
and briefly studied sculpture. However, she found the teaching methods overly conventional and ended up setting sculpture aside and focusing on
drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...
, under the instruction of
Jan Matulka
Jan Matulka (7 November 1890 – 25 June 1972) was a Czech-American modern artist originally from Bohemia. Matulka's style ranged from Abstract expressionism to landscapes, sometimes in the same day. He has directly influenced artists like Do ...
.
[''Dorothy Dehner: Sixty Years of Art.'', p. 7] It was here she met
David Smith.
Life on the farm
Dehner married Smith on
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...
, 1927. Smith and Dehner bought a farm in
Bolton Landing in
upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
in 1929 and spent much of their married life there. To sustain themselves during the
Depression, both Smith and Dehner took on commercial jobs. However, as a result of some family land holdings, Dehner received an annual check for $2,000, which helped support them financially and allowed Smith to focus on his art. In 1931, they dropped everything and took a nine-month trip to
St. Thomas in the
Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Croix ...
. Here, without the distractions of modern life, Dehner was able to focus on her painting. She primarily focused on her still life art.
Her subject matter consisted of mostly natural forms, such as shells and aquatic life, while her style remained heavily
cubist
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
. Indeed, her work during this time was heavily influenced by the
abstraction
Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or "concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abstr ...
taught by
Matulka at the
Art Students League
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at American Fine Arts Society, 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists ...
.
Europe 1935-36
After a brief sojourn back home in New York, Dehner returned to Europe in 1935 on and extensive tour with Smith. There,
John D. Graham
John D. Graham (December 27, 1886, Kyiv, Ukraine – June 27, 1961, London, England) was a Ukrainian–born American modernist and figurative painter, art collector, and a mentor of modernist artists in New York City.
Born Ivan Gratianovitch ...
took Dehner and Smith all around Paris exposing them to modernist art as well as African sculpture. Following their stay in Paris, in which they were immersed in avant-garde art, particularly in influences of
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
and Cubism, Dehner and Smith toured
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
. Dehner entrenched herself in the culture and traditional
sculpture of Greece. The sketches she made while in Greece served as the foundational designs for later sculpture based on that trip. The titles of these sculptures, such as ''Minotaur'' and ''Demeter's Harrow'' reveal clear Greek influence. Despite their
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
influences, works of Dehner during this period reflect a focus on
naturalism and a desire to depict direct observations. Her work during this trip to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
highlights the vast range of technique Dehner possessed.
However her second trip to Europe with Smith did more than expose her to the modern and historical art of the continent. While in Europe, Dehner also found reinforcement for her
leftist
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
political views. Dehner and Smith both began to link their style of art with their particular
political agenda
In politics, a political agenda is a list of subjects or problems (issues) to which government officials as well as individuals outside the government are paying serious attention to at any given time.
The political agenda is most often shaped by ...
. Many of the Smith's photographs from their travels are of
refugee
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. settlements, which were typically epicenters of
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
beliefs. The couple acted on this leftward leaning ideology and went on a tour of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in June 1936. In Russia they reunited with Graham and his wife, who focused their attention on the art of Russia and the link between
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
techniques and leftist political messages.
Return to Bolton Landing
On July 9, 1936, the couple returned to New York. In the spring of 1940 the couple made their permanent residence in Bolton Landing.
[McCandless, p. 25] Dehner was constrained in her artwork both by the stress of farm life and by the often aggressive mood swings of Smith.
[Marter, p. 4] As a result of the pressure Dehner was put under, she was unable to pursue her passion for sculpture until after their divorce.
One outburst on Smith's part caused Dehner to flee Bolton Landing in 1945. After Smith went after her and brought her back to the farm, their relationship remained particularly fragile. She rejected the increased
abstraction
Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or "concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abstr ...
Smith advocated, as evidenced in her ''Life on the Farm'' series of drawings.
[Marter, p. 10.] Some interpret this series as a simple
representation of idyllic American farm life but others see it as a commentary on American social life through a
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
lens. Although the messages of her ''Life on the Farm'' series may not be crystal clear, it was evident that during the late 1940s, Dehner underwent serious mental turmoil. She produced many provocative works that expressed this mental fatigue, such as her "Damnation Series" and "Dances of Death."
In 1948, Dehner held a solo exhibition at
Skidmore College
Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study.
History
Sk ...
which was well received. As a result, her confidence rose. Following this well-received exhibition, she read
Ernst Haeckel
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...
's
''Kunst formen der Nature'', a book of biological prints, and proceeded to incorporate these
organism
In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and ...
al forms into her artwork. This return to naturalistic forms is reminiscent of her still life from her time in the Virgin Islands. However, reading Haeckel's work marked a progression to more consistent abstraction in Dehner's work. Smith was heavily influenced by her 1948 watercolor ''Star Cage'' and eventually made a sculpture one year later of the same name. Dehner had suggested a collaborative work but Smith refused and later denied his sculpture had any connection to Dehner's watercolor. Dehner also embraced other forms of personal expression and possessed a gift for writing. Because of her lingual acuity, Smith asked her to name many of his works.
Her interest in writing culminated in her becoming a published poet later in life. In 1950, Smith had another rage-fueled outburst and Dehner left permanently. The couple divorced in 1951. Despite the dramatic ups and downs of their marriage, the twenty three years Dehner spent with Smith contributed to the formation of her own distinct style.
Later life and sculpture
''Jacob's Ladder I'', bronze of 1957, in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Following her divorce from Smith, Dehner earned a degree from Skidmore and began teaching at
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
, among other schools. Although an extremely busy and stressful time for Dehner, the two years following her divorce proved vital to her career for she finally felt free to pursue her artistic passions. During this time she experimented with new mediums, engraving and print making, with
Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17. She made intaglio prints at
Atelier 17
Atelier 17 was an art school and studio that was influential in the teaching and promotion of printmaking in the 20th century. Originally located in Paris, the studio relocated to New York during the years surrounding World War II. It moved back ...
from 1952, and that same year, had her first solo exhibit at the Rose Fried Gallery.
She continued at Atelier 17 until it moved to Paris in 1955, then worked at Pratt Graphics Center until 1960. She was also a member of the
Society of American Graphic Artists
The Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) is a not for profit national fine arts organization serving professional artists in the field of printmaking. SAGA provides its members with exhibition, reviews and networking opportunities in the Ne ...
.
While at Atelier, Dehner learned wax sculpting techniques from a fellow student and in 1955 gained enough confidence to pursue casting her
wax sculpture
A wax sculpture is a depiction made using a waxy substance. Often these are effigies, usually of a notable individual, but there are also death masks and scenes with many figures, mostly in relief.
The properties of beeswax make it an excell ...
s in
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
. This shift from drawing and painting to sculpture marked not only a shift in primary
medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
*Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
but also an end to a period of particular
psychological distress
Mental distress or psychological distress encompasses the symptoms and experiences of a person's internal life that are commonly held to be troubling, confusing or out of the ordinary. Mental distress can potentially lead to a change of behavior, a ...
. Over the next twenty years her reputation as a sculptor would skyrocket and she would hold exhibitions at the prestigious
Willard Gallery The Willard Gallery was a contemporary art gallery operating in New York City from 1940 until 1987. It was founded by Marian Willard Johnson.
History
In 1936, Marian Guthrie Willard had founded the East River Gallery as an art rental gallery at ...
in 1957, 1959, 1960, 1963, 1970, and 1973.
[McCandless, p. 26.] Dehner's medium eventually shifted from cast metal to wood in 1970's, and eventually Cor-Ten and black painted steel in the 1980's. Despite the change in material, many elements remained iconic in her works, and they retained the same overall composition of form.
Dehner's belief in the communicative power of sculpture caused her to highlight contour over mass. She chose to construct her works from varying parts, a distinctly Constructivist quality. Dehner's sculptures emphasized line and plane over volume and exhibited an assembled as opposed to modeled quality.
Despite being abstract, her sculptures are constantly reminiscent of the natural world, invoking both totemic presences and references to the assumption of a landscape.
Her work "Rites at Sal Safaeni Number 2" (1958) was included in “Recent Sculpture USA”, a 1959-1960 US travelling exhibition that was presented at the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, New York, the
Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between t ...
, Denver,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...
, Los Angeles, City Art Museum (now
Saint Louis Art Museum
The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, Mi ...
), St. Louis, and the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Dehner's sculptures were also on display at the 1960 Paris exhibition "Aspects of American Culture." Like many of the other works included, hers were primarily distinguished by their improvisation. In 1965,
The Jewish Museum
The Jewish Museum is an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the former Felix M. Warburg House, along Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The first Jewish museum in the Unit ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
put on a retrospective exhibit of Dehner's sculpture. This achievement is miraculous considering that she only began sculpture a decade earlier. In 1966 she had a solo exhibition, "Dorothy Dehner: Recent Bronzes." It was held in Willard Gallery, New York City. Dehner began experimenting with wood sculpture in 1974, following the death of her second husband. Much of Dehner's sculpture can be identified by its
totem
A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system.
While ''the wo ...
ic qualities and emphasis on
Constructivist principles. Additionally, it differs uniquely from Smith's work in its medium and construction. Much of Smith's sculpture employed welding as a construction technique, which Dehner did not embrace. In 1981 she took her sculpture to the next level, literally, and experimented with massive steel sculptures. In 1988 Dehner had solo exhibitions featuring her large welded pieces at Twining Fine Art, New York, and at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania. This was the first time in her life that Dehner had a generous personal income. By 1991 Dehner had lost nearly all of her vision and stopped sculpting. By 1990, however, Dehner was working with fabricators who helped transform some of her earlier drawings into sculptures such as the painted aluminium wall piece. After a prominent career in art, Dehner was found dead in a stairwell outside her apartment in Manhattan on September 22, 1994, at the age of ninety-two.
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
Hawthorn Studio, Skidmore College, December 6-14, 1948.
Rose Fried Gallery, New York, May 5-31, 1952.
Etchings, Morris Gallery, New York, June 17-August 31, 1952.
Albany Institute of History and Art, August-September, 1952.
Etchings and Engravings, Wittenborn Gallery, New York, January 9-21, 1956.
Sculpture and Watercolors, Willard Gallery, New York, May 7-31, 1957.
Willard Gallery, New York, February 3-28, 1959.
A Selection of Bronzes, Columbia University (Avery Hall), New York, April 16-May 1, 1961.
Willard Gallery, New York, February 5-March 2, 1963.
Ten Years of Sculpture, The Jewish Museum, New York, March 11-April 11, 1965.
The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York, May 21-June 18, 1967.
Bernard M. Baruch Gallery, City University of New York, March 1970.
Willard Gallery, New York, April 21- May 23, 1970.
Sculpture and Drawings, Parsons/Dreyfus Gallery, New York, February 20-March 10, 1979.
A. Sachs, New York, March 31-April 24, 1983.
Sculpture and Works on Paper, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania, April 14-May 22, 1988.
Heroic Sculpture, Twining Fine Art, New York, 1990.
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., March 10-May 20, 1990.
Baruch College Art Gallery, City University of New York, March 15-April 16, 1991.
Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, April 10-May 2, 1992.
Selected Group Exhibitions
Painting and Sculpture Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, July 1, 1951- May 31,1953.
Watercolors, Willard Gallery, New York, May 3-28, 1995.
International Watercolor Exhibition, 18th Biennial, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1955.
Fifth Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Stable Gallery, New York, May 22-June 16, 1956.
Sculpture, Various Times and Various Cultures, Willard Gallery, New York, January 3-26, 1957 (3 bronzes included).
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, March 14-April 7, 1957.
Trends in Watercolor Today, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, April 9-May 26, 1957.
Directions in Sculpture, Riverside Museum, New York, December 1-22, 1957.
Painting and Sculpture Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 1, 1959- December 31, 1959.
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, Eighteenth Annual Exhibition, Riverside Museum, New York, March 29-April 26, 1959. (also 23rd Annual Exhibition, January 12-26, 1964.)
New Sculpture Group, Stable Gallery, New York, September 28-October 24, 1959.
Aspects de la Sculpture Americaine, Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, October, 1960.
New Sculpture Group, Fifth Exhibition, Stable Gallery, New York, September 27-October 15, 1960.
Annual Exhibition, Contemporary Sculpture and Drawing, Whitney Museum of American Art, December 7, 1960-January 22, 1961.
New Sculpture Group, Holland-Goldowsky, Chicago, March 10-April 6m 1961.
The Quest and the Quarry, Rome-New York Art Foundation, Inc., Rome, May-September, 1961.
New Sculpture Group, Sixth Exhibition, Stable Gallery, New York, September 19-October 14, 1961.
Twelve New York Sculptors, Riverside Museum, New York, April 8-29, 1962.
Small Sculpture: Robert Adams, Dorothy Dehner, Elizabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth, The Waddington Galleries, London, July 1962.
New Directions, Sculpture, American Federation of Arts, New York, October 1962-May 1963 (traveled throughout the United States).
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, Inc., New York, 22nd Annual Exhibition, January 13-27, 1963 (also 1964).
Sculptors Guild Exhibition, New York, October 22-November 21, 1963 (also 1964, 1967, 1972, 1973).
Triennale de Milano, Palazzo dell’Arte Parco Sempione Milano, 1964.
Landscape in Abstraction, The Sculptors Guild, New York, April 18-May 6, 1967.
National Association of Women Artists, Annual Exhibition, New York, May 14-31, 1970.
Artists of Lake George, 1776-1976, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York, June 26- September 8, 1976.
Modern Masters: Women of the First Generation, Women Artists Series at Douglass College, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, December 1-21, 1982.
Standing Ground: Sculpture by American Women, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, March 27-May 10, 1987.
The New Sculpture Group, A Look Back: 1957-1962, New York Studio School, March 8-April 8, 1988.
John Graham: Artist and Avatar, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., July 9-September 4, 1988 (also shown at Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase; Newport Harbor Art Museum, California, and University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley, and Smart Gallery, University of Chicago).
ehner’s painting included with works by Alexander Calder, Arshile Gorky, David Smith, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock
Centennial Exhibition, National Association of Women Artists, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York, November-December, 1988.
Enduring Creativity, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1988. American Women of the Twentieth Century, Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee, and Queensborough Community College, New York, 1989.
Paths to Discovery: The New York School, Baruch College Art Gallery, City University of New York, March-April, 1992.
Post Mortem Exhibitions
Dorothy Dehner: Drawings, Prints, Sculpture, A Dehner retrospective, opens the renovated Prints and Drawings Gallery of the Cleveland Museum of Art on July 11, 1995. DD’s work is shown through November 5. Jane Glaubinger, Curator of Prints and Drawings, CMA, and Guest Curator Dr. Joan Marter, Rutgers, organize the exhibition.
Marter presents lecture “Arcadian Nightmares: Dorothy Dehner and David Smith at Bolton Landing” to the Print Club of Cleveland and to CMA Prints and Drawings Personnel during July in conjunction with the exhibition. Marter returns to CMA, October 11, to present the lecture to the general public.
Women and Abstract Expressionism, organized by Joan Marter, features Dorothy Dehner, Pearl Fine, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Betty Parsons and Ethel Schwabacher from May 25-June 15, 1997 at the Guild Hall, in East Hampton, New York.The exhibition is dedicated to all the “women who helped blaze the trail for abstract expressionism in the United States, but were overshadowed by the male contingent.” (Lipson, Karen. Newsday, Part Two, “Women’s Issues,” B4.)
Dorothy Dehner/The 1970s: An Homage to Her 1979 Parsons-Dreyfuss Exhibition, held May 6- June 10, 2005 by Kraushaar Galleries, Inc., features Dehner’s abstract watercolors, small wood sculptures and her large drawings for sculptures.
Dorothy Dehner/The Intimate Gesture: A Selection of Drawings and Prints from the 1950s, held by Kraushaar Galleries, Inc., February 24-March 31, 2011 features abstract mixed media works in pen and ink with watercolor, as well as some of the artist’s prints pulled at Hayter’s Atelier 17.
Dorothy Dehner at the Hyde, in conjunction with the Hyde Collection’s Fiftieth Anniversary celebration “Five Decades of Collecting 1963-2013,” is exhibited January 20-April 14, 2013. Erin Coe, interim chief curator, and Jayne Stokes, associate curator, organize and design both exhibitions.
References
External links
''Still Life with Shells'' (a still life work from her time in the Virgin Islands)''Desert'' (an example of Dehner's artwork during her period of psychological turmoil during the 1940s)''Gateway'' (an example of Dehner's wooden sculpture from the 1970s)''Nocturne'' (an example of artwork influenced by Ernst Haeckel's ''Kunst formen der Natur'')Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dehner, Dorothy
1901 births
1994 deaths
Abstract expressionist artists
Art Students League of New York alumni
Artists from Cleveland
People from Bolton Landing, New York
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
American women sculptors
Sculptors from Ohio
American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni
Skidmore College alumni
Barnard College faculty
Sculptors from New York (state)