Dorr Hodgson Bothwell (May 3, 1902 – September 24, 2000) 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 ...

artist, designer, educator, and world-traveler. A varied artist, Bothwell was considered a part of the Bay Area Surrealist artist scene and has

painting 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 ...

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, ...

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

s, and

prints In molecular biology, the PRINTS database is a collection of so-called "fingerprints": it provides both a detailed annotation resource for protein families, and a diagnostic tool for newly determined sequences. A fingerprint is a group of conserve ...

in notable museums throughout the world."In Memoriam: Dorr Bothwell" Cloverdale Reveillie, Oct 18, 2000, p. 2. She was particularly known for her innovative use of

serigraphy Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open me ...

as a fine art form. Born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, and later raised in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, Bothwell knew from the age of 4 that she wanted to be an artist."Obituaries: Dorr Bothwell; Painter Lived Nomadic Life", Los Angeles Times, Sep 28, 2000, p. B14. As a teenager, she studied dance at the Ratliff School for Dancing. Her art career began at the

California School of Fine Arts San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

(now the San Francisco Art Institute) in 1921 under the tutelage of

Gottardo Piazzoni Gottardo Fidele Piazzoni (1872–1945) was a Swiss-born American landscape painter, muralist and sculptor of Italian heritage, a key member of the school of Northern California artists in the early 1900s. Life and career Born in Intragna, Switz ...

and

Rudolph Schaeffer Rudolph Frederick Schaeffer (June 26, 1886 – March 5, 1988) an American arts educator and artist connected to the Arts and Crafts movement. He was the founder of the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design, a school that was based in San Francisco an ...

.Richard, Valliere T. "Dorr Bothwell: Edited Biography." Arts & Entertainment Magazine, March/April 1999. Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, California. Bothwell was married to sculptor

Donal Hord Donal Hord (February 26, 1902 – June 29, 1966), an American sculptor, was born Donald Horr in Prentice, Wisconsin. Early life In 1914, Hord and his mother moved west, to Seattle, Washington. Shortly thereafter he contracted rheumatic fever, a ...

in 1932 but divorced shortly after likely due to her independence in traveling and difference of opinion on "domestic duties".

Travels

Bothwell's travels began in 1928, after her father died. Her destination, Samoa, was influenced by watching the film Moana and a desire to live cheaply after a change in her financial situation. She spent 1928 and 1929 living and working in Samoa where she learned the language, and was appointed taupo, adopted daughter of a Samoan village chief. Upon consenting to be tattooed, she was accepted as a full Samoan, and subsequently learned their songs, dances and ceremonies. San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, June 1,1930, p. 10E She spent another two years in Europe before resettling in San Diego in 1932, where she married her childhood friend, sculptor

. Separating from Hord, she moved to Los Angeles in 1934, joining the post-surrealist group around

Lorser Feitelson Lorser Feitelson (1898–1978) was an artist known as one of the founding fathers of Southern California-based hard-edge painting. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Feitelson was raised in New York City, where his family relocated shortly after his bir ...

and

Helen Lundeberg Helen Lundeberg (1908–1999) was a Southern Californian painter. Along with her husband Lorser Feitelson, she is credited with establishing the Post-Surrealist movement. Her artistic style changed over the course of her career, and has been des ...

, and participating in the mural division of the

Federal Arts Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

, where she learned the art of screenprinting, which would become her favored graphic technique. She returned to San Francisco in 1942. She traveled to Paris in 1949/51, to Africa in 1966/67, to England, France and the Netherlands in 1970, to Bali, Java and Sumatra in 1974, and to China and Japan in 1982/85."Dorr Bothwell"
, ''Zacha's Bay Window Gallery'' (2010) Accessed 4/15/2011.

Notan

In 1968, Dorr Bothwell and Marlys Mayfield wrote '' Notan – on the Interaction of Positive and Negative Spaces''. It was first reissued in 1976, and the first Danish translation was published in 1977. In 1991 the book was republished by Dover Publications as ''Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design''; it has been in print continuously since then.

Honors and collections

Bothwell received many honors in her lifetime, including an Abraham Rosenberg Fellowship, the 1979 San Francisco Women in the Arts Award and two Pollock-Krasner grants for 1998–2000. Her art is in the collections of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

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 ...

, the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

in Paris, the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London and the

Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology M ...

, Glasgow, Scotland.

Teaching

Bothwell taught at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

, the Mendocino Art Center, the

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

in New York, the

Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...

Photography Workshops in Yosemite and the Victor School of Photography in Colorado.

References

Sources

* Bothwell, Dorr. ''Dorr Bothwell's African Sketchbook''. Monica Hannasch, editor. Arti Grafiche Ambrosini – Roma, 2000. Print. * Bothwell, Dorr and Marlys Mayfield. ''Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design''. . Dover Publications, 1991. Print. * Bowers, Karen. "Dorr Bothwell: Original Prints from Three Decades", ''Arts & Entertainment Magazine'', March/April 1999. Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, California. Print.
"Dorr Bothwell Biography" (ArtScene, undated)
* Fort, Ilene Susan. "The Adventurers, the Eccentrics, and the Dreamers: Women Modernists of Southern California", ''Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890–1945''. Patricia Trenton, editor. . University of California Press, 1995. Pages 76, 80, 82, 86, 89, 95, 98. Print. * Landauer, Susan. "Searching for Selfhood: Woman Artists of Northern California", ''Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890–1945''. Patricia Trenton, editor.. University of California Press, 1995. Pages 25, 32, 37, 38. Print. * Oliver, Myrna. "Dorr Bothwell; Painter Lived Nomadic Life." Los Angeles Times, 21 September 2000: B-8. Print. * Richard, Valliere T. "Dorr Bothwell: Edited Biography." ''Arts & Entertainment Magazine'', March/April 1999. Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, California. * Stevenson, Charles. "Local Artists on Avant Garde: Charles Stevenson talks about the onward march of culture and other things related to the avant garde." ''Arts & Entertainment Magazine'', March 1981. Antonia Lamb, editor. Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, California. Pages 8, 9. Print.

External links

Dorr Bothwell at Paramour Fine Arts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bothwell, Dorr 1902 births 2000 deaths Artists from San Francisco American women painters Painters from California 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists Federal Art Project artists