Jim Dine facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jim Dine
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Dine in 2020
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| Born |
James Lewis Dine
June 16, 1935 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
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| Education | Ohio University University of Cincinnati |
| Known for | painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography, happenings, assemblage, poetry |
| Spouse(s) | Nancy Lee Minto |
Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935) is a famous American artist. He creates many kinds of art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photos. He also makes prints using different methods, like lithography and woodcut.
In his early career, Jim Dine was known for "happenings" (live art events) and "assemblage" (art made from found objects). More recently, he has also been writing and reading his own poetry.
Jim Dine's art often shows his own life and feelings. He uses special symbols over and over again, like hearts, bathrobes, tools, old statues, and the character Pinocchio. He finds inspiration everywhere, from books he reads to objects he sees in shops.
His art has been shown in over 300 solo exhibitions around the world. His work is also kept in major art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Tate Gallery in London. Jim Dine has received many awards for his art, like being nominated to the Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Jim Dine's Early Education
Jim Dine started learning art when he was 16 years old. He took night classes at the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1952. He felt high school didn't offer enough art classes.
In 1954, he saw a book about modern prints and drawings. He was especially amazed by German woodcuts from artists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. This inspired him to start making his own woodcuts in his grandparents' basement.
After high school, Jim Dine went to the University of Cincinnati. But he didn't like it because it focused on design, not painting. So, in 1955, he moved to Ohio University. There, he felt free to develop as an artist.
At Ohio University, he learned about different printmaking techniques. He studied with Donald Roberts, a printmaking teacher. Later, he also studied in Boston before returning to Ohio University. He earned his art degree in 1957.
Jim Dine's Art Career
In 1958, Jim Dine moved to New York City. He helped start the Judson Gallery with other artists like Claes Oldenburg. There, he met Allan Kaprow and Bob Whitman. Together, they became pioneers of "happenings" and performances.
One of his first performances was The Smiling Workman in 1959. Another important early work was Car Crash (1960), which he described as a mix of sounds and words. He also created The House (1960), an art space filled with found objects.
Jim Dine often used everyday items in his art, even his own belongings. This made some people link him to Pop Art. Pop Art uses images from popular culture. He was part of an important Pop Art show in 1962 called "New Painting of Common Objects."
However, Jim Dine has always said he is not a Pop artist. He explained, "I'm not a Pop artist. I'm not part of the movement because I'm too subjective. Pop is concerned with exteriors. I'm concerned with interiors." He uses objects to show feelings and explore himself.
Jim Dine's Favorite Symbols
Since the 1960s, Jim Dine has used a few special symbols in his art. He uses these symbols to explore his feelings and ideas in many different ways. He has worked in studios all over the world, including London, Paris, and Germany.
Bathrobes in Art
Jim Dine first painted bathrobes in 1964. He was looking for a new way to create a self-portrait without showing his face. He saw a picture of a bathrobe in a magazine and decided to use it.
Since then, the bathrobe has become a symbol for himself in his art. He paints them in different styles, from very realistic to more expressive.
Hearts in Art
Jim Dine first used the heart symbol in 1965. He designed a large red satin heart for a play called A Midsummer Night's Dream. He had seen red hearts on white backgrounds as a student, which inspired him.
Over time, the heart became a "universal symbol" for him. He saw it as a kind of landscape where he could create anything. The simple shape of the heart allowed him to make it his own. It became a way for him to show his changing self. The heart also represents his love for creating art.
Pinocchio in Art
Jim Dine has always been fascinated by Pinocchio, the puppet who wants to be a real boy. His interest started when he was six years old and saw Walt Disney's Pinocchio movie. He said it "has haunted my heart forever!"
In 1964, he found a detailed Pinocchio figure while buying tools. He kept it for 25 years before using it in his art. In the 1990s, he started making art with Pinocchio. He created paintings, prints, and even a book with his own illustrations for Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio.
He also made huge bronze sculptures of Pinocchio, some as tall as 9 meters (about 30 feet). One is in Sweden and another in South Korea. Jim Dine sees Pinocchio's journey to become real as a metaphor for how artists create art. Lately, he has started to identify more with Gepetto, Pinocchio's creator.
Old Statues in Art
Jim Dine has always loved ancient art, especially from ancient Greece and Rome. His mother took him to art museums as a child, where he saw beautiful old statues.
He has used ancient art in his work since he was young. For example, his 1959 sculpture Untitled (After Winged Victory) was inspired by the famous Winged Victory of Samothrace statue.
He often uses the Venus de Milo statue in his art. He bought a small plaster copy of it in Paris. He started by including it in his still-life paintings. Then, he broke its head off to make it his own.
He also gets ideas from specific museum collections, like the Glyptothek in Munich. He visited it in 1984 and drew many of the statues there. He felt a strong connection to the artists who carved these ancient works. He felt like he was part of a long tradition of art.
One important recent work is Poet Singing (The Flowering Sheets). It has tall wooden sculptures inspired by ancient Greek dancing women. These are arranged around a large self-portrait head of Jim Dine. The walls of the room are covered with a long poem he wrote. This artwork is now a permanent display in Germany.
Tools in Art
"I never stopped being enchanted by these objects," Jim Dine said about tools. Tools are very important to him, just like Pinocchio and old statues. His love for tools began in childhood.
His maternal grandfather, Morris Cohen, owned a hardware store in Cincinnati. Jim Dine lived with him for three years and worked in the store on Saturdays. He saw hammers, saws, drills, and screwdrivers every day.
He admired the beauty of the tools and hardware items. He loved the colors of electric wires and how paint looked like "white taffy." He believes tools are just as interesting as any other object.
For Jim Dine, tools represent how raw materials are turned into art. They are like "extensions of his hands" that help him create. He sees tools as a "metaphor for 'work'."
He has included real tools in his art since his early works, like Big Black Work Wall (1961), a painting with tools attached. He also draws, paints, photographs, and prints images of tools. In one special print series, A History of Communism (2014), he printed tool designs over old lithographs from Germany. This showed how history is complex and layered, not just one simple story.
Jim Dine's Teaching Roles
Jim Dine has also taught art at different places:
- 1965 – Guest lecturer at Yale University
- 1966 – Teaching at Cornell University
- 1993–95 – Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts
- 1995–96 – Hochschule der Künste, Berlin
Jim Dine's Collaborations
Jim Dine has worked with many people and galleries over the years to create and show his art. Some of his long-term collaborations include:
- 1975–2008: Printmaker Aldo Crommelynck, Paris
- 1978–2016: Pace Gallery, New York
- 1998–present: Printer and publisher Gerhard Steidl, Göttingen
Jim Dine's Art in Museums
Jim Dine's artworks are part of the permanent collections in many museums around the world. Here are a few:
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Tate Gallery, London
- Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo
- Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Jim Dine's Poetry Readings
Jim Dine has also shared his poetry in public readings:
- 1969: With Ted Berrigan, Arts Lab, London
- 2005: With Diana Michener and Vincent Katz, Bowery Poetry Club, New York
- 2015: With Dorothea Lasky, St. Mark's Church, New York
- 2018: Hauser & Wirth, New York
See also
In Spanish: Jim Dine para niños
