Dorothy Dehner facts for kids

Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994) was an American painter and sculptor. She became famous for her unique abstract sculptures and drawings. Dehner's art often showed shapes inspired by nature and bold lines. She was an important artist in the Abstract Expressionism movement.

Early Life and Artistic Beginnings

Dorothy Dehner was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 23, 1901. Her father was a pharmacist, and her mother was a strong supporter of women's right to vote. When Dorothy was ten, her father passed away. Her aunts, Flo and Cora, then moved in with the family. Cora often told exciting stories about her travels. These stories later inspired Dorothy to explore the world.

In 1915, Dorothy's family moved to Pasadena, California. Her mother's health was getting worse. During this time, Dorothy studied theater at the Pasadena Playhouse. Sadly, over the next two years, both her sister and mother died. In 1918, she moved to California to continue acting. She took classes at the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1922, she studied theater at the University of California, Los Angeles. However, she left after a year to try acting in New York. There, she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She even acted in some off-Broadway plays. Even with some success, Dorothy felt that acting limited her creativity. She wanted more freedom in her art.

Finding Inspiration in Europe (1925)

After her acting career, Dorothy decided to travel to Paris in 1925. She went alone to have complete freedom. Her first stop was Florence, Italy. She loved Italy's old buildings and art. After a quick visit to Switzerland, she flew to Paris. There, she was greatly influenced by new art styles like Cubism, Fauvism, and Constructivism. She especially admired the works of Pablo Picasso. Dorothy spent her year of travel focusing on drawing. The 1925 Art Deco show in Paris particularly amazed her.

When she returned to the United States, Dehner joined the Art Students League of New York. She briefly studied sculpture. But she found the teaching methods too old-fashioned. So, she put sculpture aside and focused on drawing. Her teacher was Jan Matulka. It was there that she met David Smith, who would become her husband.

Life and Art on the Farm

Dorothy Dehner married David Smith on Christmas Eve, 1927. In 1929, they bought a farm in Bolton Landing, New York. They spent much of their married life there. During the Great Depression, both artists took on commercial jobs to earn money. Dorothy also received an annual check from family land. This money helped them financially. It allowed Smith to focus more on his art.

In 1931, they took a nine-month trip to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Away from city life, Dorothy could focus on her painting. She mostly painted still life art. Her subjects were often natural forms like shells and sea creatures. Her style remained very cubist. Her work from this time clearly showed the abstraction she learned from Jan Matulka at the Art Students League of New York.

European Travels (1935-1936)

After a short time back in New York, Dehner returned to Europe in 1935 with Smith. Their friend John D. Graham showed them around Paris. They saw many modern artworks and African sculptures. They were deeply influenced by Surrealism and Cubism. After Paris, Dehner and Smith toured Greece. Dorothy spent time learning about Greek culture and traditional sculpture. Her sketches from Greece became the basis for later sculptures. These sculptures had Greek-inspired titles, like Minotaur.

Even with these modern influences, Dorothy's work from this trip focused on naturalism. She wanted to show direct observations. Her art from this trip showed how many different techniques she could use. During this second trip to Europe, Dorothy also found support for her political views. She and Smith began to connect their art style with their political ideas. Many of Smith's photos from their travels showed refugee camps. These places were often centers of communist beliefs. In June 1936, the couple visited the Soviet Union. There, they met Graham and his wife again. They focused on Russian art and how modern art could carry political messages.

Returning to Bolton Landing

On July 9, 1936, Dorothy and David returned to New York. In the spring of 1940, they made Bolton Landing their permanent home. Dorothy found it hard to create art there. Farm life was stressful, and Smith often had aggressive mood swings. Because of this pressure, Dorothy could not focus on sculpture until after their divorce. In 1945, one of Smith's outbursts caused Dorothy to leave Bolton Landing. Smith brought her back, but their relationship remained difficult.

Dorothy did not like the increased abstraction that Smith favored. This is clear in her Life on the Farm series of drawings. Some people see these drawings as simple pictures of farm life. Others see them as a comment on American society through a Marxist viewpoint. While the meaning of her Life on the Farm series might not be perfectly clear, Dorothy went through a lot of emotional difficulty in the late 1940s. She created many powerful works that showed this struggle, like her "Damnation Series."

In 1948, Dorothy had a solo art show at Skidmore College. It was very successful, and her confidence grew. After this show, she read Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur. This book had biological prints. Dorothy started to use these natural forms in her art. This return to nature-inspired shapes was similar to her still life paintings from the Virgin Islands. Reading Haeckel's work led Dorothy to use more consistent abstract forms in her art. Smith was very influenced by her 1948 watercolor Star Cage. He later made a sculpture with the same name. Dorothy had suggested they work together, but Smith refused. He later denied his sculpture had any link to Dorothy's watercolor.

Dorothy also loved to write. She was very good with words. Smith often asked her to name his artworks. Her interest in writing led her to become a published poet later in life. In 1950, Smith had another angry outburst, and Dorothy left for good. They divorced in 1951. Even with the challenges of their marriage, the twenty-three years Dorothy spent with Smith helped her develop her own unique art style.

Later Life and Sculpture Career

Jacob's Ladder I, a bronze sculpture from 1957, located in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

After her divorce from Smith, Dorothy earned a degree from Skidmore College. She began teaching at Barnard College and other schools. This was a very busy and stressful time for her. However, the two years after her divorce were very important for her career. She finally felt free to follow her artistic passions. During this time, she tried new art forms like engraving and printmaking. She worked with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17. She made prints at Atelier 17 starting in 1952. That same year, she had her first solo exhibition at the Rose Fried Gallery. She continued at Atelier 17 until it moved to Paris in 1955. Then, she worked at Pratt Graphics Center until 1960. She was also a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists.

At Atelier, Dorothy learned wax sculpting techniques from another student. In 1955, she felt confident enough to start casting her wax sculptures in bronze. This change from drawing and painting to sculpture was a big step. It also marked the end of a difficult time for her. Over the next twenty years, her fame as a sculptor grew rapidly. She had exhibitions at the famous Willard Gallery many times between 1957 and 1973. Dorothy's main material for sculpture later changed from cast metal to wood in the 1970s. In the 1980s, she used Cor-Ten and black painted steel. Even with different materials, many parts of her works remained the same. They kept their overall shape and style.

Dorothy believed sculpture could communicate powerful ideas. She focused on the outline of her sculptures rather than their solid mass. She built her works from different parts, which is a key feature of Constructivism. Her sculptures highlighted lines and flat surfaces more than volume. They looked like they were put together, not carved from a single block. Even though her sculptures were abstract, they often reminded people of the natural world. They looked like ancient symbols or parts of a landscape.

Her sculpture "Rites at Sal Safaeni Number 2" (1958) was part of a traveling exhibition in the US from 1959-1960. This show, "Recent Sculpture USA," visited major museums like the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Dorothy's sculptures were also shown at the 1960 Paris exhibition "Aspects of American Culture." Like many other works in that show, hers were known for their unique, unplanned style. In 1965, The Jewish Museum in New York City held a special show of Dorothy's sculptures. This was amazing because she had only started sculpting ten years earlier. In 1966, she had another solo exhibition, "Dorothy Dehner: Recent Bronzes," at Willard Gallery.

Dorothy began trying wood sculpture in 1974, after her second husband passed away. Many of her sculptures can be recognized by their totem-like qualities. They also show strong Constructivist ideas. Her work is also different from David Smith's art in its materials and how it was made. Smith often used welding for his sculptures, which Dorothy did not. In 1981, she took her sculpture to a new level by experimenting with huge steel sculptures. In 1988, Dorothy had solo exhibitions of her large welded pieces at Twining Fine Art in New York and at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. This was the first time in her life that Dorothy had a good personal income. By 1991, Dorothy had lost almost all her eyesight and stopped sculpting. However, by 1990, she worked with skilled craftspeople. They helped turn some of her earlier drawings into sculptures, like a painted aluminum wall piece. After a long and successful art career, Dorothy Dehner was found dead in a stairwell outside her apartment in Manhattan on September 22, 1994. She was ninety-two years old.

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.
• 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.
• Sculptors Guild Exhibition, New York, October 22-November 21, 1963.
• 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.
• 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, Cleveland Museum of Art, July 11-November 5, 1995.
• Women and Abstract Expressionism, Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York, May 25-June 15, 1997.
• Dorothy Dehner/The 1970s: An Homage to Her 1979 Parsons-Dreyfuss Exhibition, Kraushaar Galleries, Inc., May 6-June 10, 2005.
• Dorothy Dehner/The Intimate Gesture: A Selection of Drawings and Prints from the 1950s, Kraushaar Galleries, Inc., February 24-March 31, 2011.
• Dorothy Dehner at the Hyde, Hyde Collection, January 20-April 14, 2013.

See also

In Spanish: Dorothy Dehner para niños