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We have not yet made shoes that fit like sand
Nor clothes that fit like water
Nor thoughts that fit like air.
There is much to be done—
Works of Nature are abstract,
They do not lean on other things for meaning
The sea-gull is not like the sea
Nor the sun like the moon.
The sun draws water from the sea
The Clouds are not like either one—
They do not keep one form forever.
That the mountainside looks like a face is accidental. [1]
In his painting from a decade later, Dancing, 1934, Dove created an overall composition with the most minimal evocation of very shallow recessional space suggested by overlapping forms and shifts in scale. Force lines suggest energy and movement. Dove favored Naples yellow to express the power of, rather than the look of, early morning. The oil paints he used, probably ground and mixed by the artist himself, glow in muted tones of lavender, blue, red earth, and yellow ochre.
Dancing is a wonderfully complicated image. There is a horizontal band of dark gray, overlaid with blending strokes of light gray which provide visual texture but not conventional modeling of three-dimensional form. This band extends across the full width of the composition and from it on its upper edge four stubby protrusions arise. Above and/or behind the dark gray band is a large yellow form that is indistinguishable as figure or ground, but the bottom edge establishes in negative space a repetition of the protrusions. Above this is another horizontal strip that gradually shifts from a warm gray on the left to a cool gray on the right. Dove creates repeated forms in variations, and colors that are both analogous and complementary. In the implicit middle ground of the composition, established by the large yellow form, are three biomorphic shapes, one twinned; to the right is a white yellow ovoid with a flattened bottom, not unlike a light bulb with a glowing filament which is in contrast to the rich dark purple biomorphic form. The purple form is a much thinner shape, almost like a funnel cloud, and there is a thumb-like extension that continues in the direction of the yellow form just described. The inner line suggestive of a filament makes a hairpin turn and extends upwards and to the left, like a stem of a smaller, earth red oblong shape. The reddish orange is balanced by its complementary color, an ultramarine blue into black on the lower right edge of the picture plane while its form is repeated in black in the upper right of the picture plane. In the lower left a dark purplish gray shape is loosely reminiscent of a gloved left hand, which mirrors the funnel cloud’s “thumb.” Around and/or sometimes in front of the large yellow form or backdrop is a meandering black line that distinguishes forms from the background or shapes from the picture plane. One could understand it as a strictly formal arrangement in the top area of the composition, but the paint suggests a veil of semi-transparent darkness with the black line becoming a horizon for the early rising sun. Even with Dove’s admonition in mind, the references to his varied experiences of nature in and around Geneva somehow do not feel “accidental.”
It is very possible that the source of this image was developed from a small sketch or watercolor. By the early thirties, Dove had enlarged some studies into paintings with the aid of a pantograph belonging to the Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. A pantograph is a mechanical device with arms so positioned that when one is traced over a pattern, another will repeat the pattern with enlargement or diminution, as desired. Dove undoubtedly appreciated a means to expand his formal investigation from his initial subjective response to the world around him.
Dove painted Dancing in 1934, while he and his second wife Helen Torr were living in an old farmhouse in his hometown of Geneva in upstate New York. Dove and his brother had acquired the property in 1933 after their widowed mother had died; unfortunately the estate was saddled with debt and despite great efforts the Doves never prospered there. It was, however, one of the few periods in Dove’s life where he had room to paint. They spent five years in Geneva, and Dove went into New York City only once, in 1936, to see his exhibition that year at An American Place. There he finally met his patron Duncan Phillips. The painting Dancing was included in a 1939 exhibition at that gallery.
In Barbara Haskell’s 1974 exhibition of Dove’s work, the painting was listed in the catalogue as belonging to Charles Brooks. Brooks was the son of Van Wyck Brooks, a well-known literary critic and longtime friend of Dove from Westport, Connecticut. As a child, Charles Brooks was a friend of Dove’s son William, who introduced his father to Brooks in 1929. It is unclear if this painting was bought by Brooks from Dove during the artist’s lifetime, although we know from correspondence between Dove and Stieglitz that in 1934 Brooks purchased a watercolor from Dove’s exhibition at the Intimate Gallery to give to his parents. A letter written around February 25, 1935, indicates that William Dove and Charles Brooks had paid the artist a visit so it is possible that they could have seen Dancing in the studio. Dove wrote to Stieglitz of this visit, “Charles was amazed at the amount of work with so many interruptions. He would sit looking at the paintings by the hour when I had to be out on ‘business.’” [2]
Notes:
[1] Barbara Haskell, Arthur Dove, exhibition catalogue (Boston, MA: New York Graphic Society for San Francisco Museum of Art, 1974), appendix.
[2] Ann Lee Morgan, ed., Dear Stieglitz, Dear Dove (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1988), 327.
Provenance1975
Charles and Inez Brooks. [1]
1994
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York. [2]
Notes:
[1] Exhibition Catalog, Arthur Dove.
[2] Loan Agreement.
Exhibition History1974-1975
Arthur Dove
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA (11/20/1974-1/5/1975)
1977
Modern Spirit
Arts Council of Great Britain, London, England (1977)
2000
Jazz: An American Muse
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (5/4/2000-8/30/2000)
2007
The Art of Dance
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (4/3/2007 - 9/16/2007)
2009
Steiglitz Circle: Beyond O'Keeffe
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (6/6/2009-11/15/2009)
Published ReferencesMorgan, Ann Lee. Arthur Dove: Life and Work, with a Catalogue Raisonne. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1984, p. 213.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg 252, 253
DepartmentAmerican Art
Dancing
Artist
Arthur Dove
(1880 - 1946)
Date1934
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFrame: 28 3/4 × 38 3/4 in. (73 × 98.4 cm)
Image (visible): 24 5/8 × 34 3/4 in. (62.5 × 88.3 cm)
SignedDove
Credit LineGift of Barbara B. Millhouse
CopyrightCourtesy of Reynolda House Musuem of American Art
Object number2016.2.1
DescriptionIn 1925, the painter Arthur Dove provided an entry for the catalogue accompanying the Seven Americans exhibition held at the Anderson Gallery in New York City. Taking his poem’s title, “A Way to Look at Things,” as a guide for looking at his art, Dove makes absolutely clear his disapproval of any attempt to associate forms with representations, rather than as abstractions of nature.We have not yet made shoes that fit like sand
Nor clothes that fit like water
Nor thoughts that fit like air.
There is much to be done—
Works of Nature are abstract,
They do not lean on other things for meaning
The sea-gull is not like the sea
Nor the sun like the moon.
The sun draws water from the sea
The Clouds are not like either one—
They do not keep one form forever.
That the mountainside looks like a face is accidental. [1]
In his painting from a decade later, Dancing, 1934, Dove created an overall composition with the most minimal evocation of very shallow recessional space suggested by overlapping forms and shifts in scale. Force lines suggest energy and movement. Dove favored Naples yellow to express the power of, rather than the look of, early morning. The oil paints he used, probably ground and mixed by the artist himself, glow in muted tones of lavender, blue, red earth, and yellow ochre.
Dancing is a wonderfully complicated image. There is a horizontal band of dark gray, overlaid with blending strokes of light gray which provide visual texture but not conventional modeling of three-dimensional form. This band extends across the full width of the composition and from it on its upper edge four stubby protrusions arise. Above and/or behind the dark gray band is a large yellow form that is indistinguishable as figure or ground, but the bottom edge establishes in negative space a repetition of the protrusions. Above this is another horizontal strip that gradually shifts from a warm gray on the left to a cool gray on the right. Dove creates repeated forms in variations, and colors that are both analogous and complementary. In the implicit middle ground of the composition, established by the large yellow form, are three biomorphic shapes, one twinned; to the right is a white yellow ovoid with a flattened bottom, not unlike a light bulb with a glowing filament which is in contrast to the rich dark purple biomorphic form. The purple form is a much thinner shape, almost like a funnel cloud, and there is a thumb-like extension that continues in the direction of the yellow form just described. The inner line suggestive of a filament makes a hairpin turn and extends upwards and to the left, like a stem of a smaller, earth red oblong shape. The reddish orange is balanced by its complementary color, an ultramarine blue into black on the lower right edge of the picture plane while its form is repeated in black in the upper right of the picture plane. In the lower left a dark purplish gray shape is loosely reminiscent of a gloved left hand, which mirrors the funnel cloud’s “thumb.” Around and/or sometimes in front of the large yellow form or backdrop is a meandering black line that distinguishes forms from the background or shapes from the picture plane. One could understand it as a strictly formal arrangement in the top area of the composition, but the paint suggests a veil of semi-transparent darkness with the black line becoming a horizon for the early rising sun. Even with Dove’s admonition in mind, the references to his varied experiences of nature in and around Geneva somehow do not feel “accidental.”
It is very possible that the source of this image was developed from a small sketch or watercolor. By the early thirties, Dove had enlarged some studies into paintings with the aid of a pantograph belonging to the Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. A pantograph is a mechanical device with arms so positioned that when one is traced over a pattern, another will repeat the pattern with enlargement or diminution, as desired. Dove undoubtedly appreciated a means to expand his formal investigation from his initial subjective response to the world around him.
Dove painted Dancing in 1934, while he and his second wife Helen Torr were living in an old farmhouse in his hometown of Geneva in upstate New York. Dove and his brother had acquired the property in 1933 after their widowed mother had died; unfortunately the estate was saddled with debt and despite great efforts the Doves never prospered there. It was, however, one of the few periods in Dove’s life where he had room to paint. They spent five years in Geneva, and Dove went into New York City only once, in 1936, to see his exhibition that year at An American Place. There he finally met his patron Duncan Phillips. The painting Dancing was included in a 1939 exhibition at that gallery.
In Barbara Haskell’s 1974 exhibition of Dove’s work, the painting was listed in the catalogue as belonging to Charles Brooks. Brooks was the son of Van Wyck Brooks, a well-known literary critic and longtime friend of Dove from Westport, Connecticut. As a child, Charles Brooks was a friend of Dove’s son William, who introduced his father to Brooks in 1929. It is unclear if this painting was bought by Brooks from Dove during the artist’s lifetime, although we know from correspondence between Dove and Stieglitz that in 1934 Brooks purchased a watercolor from Dove’s exhibition at the Intimate Gallery to give to his parents. A letter written around February 25, 1935, indicates that William Dove and Charles Brooks had paid the artist a visit so it is possible that they could have seen Dancing in the studio. Dove wrote to Stieglitz of this visit, “Charles was amazed at the amount of work with so many interruptions. He would sit looking at the paintings by the hour when I had to be out on ‘business.’” [2]
Notes:
[1] Barbara Haskell, Arthur Dove, exhibition catalogue (Boston, MA: New York Graphic Society for San Francisco Museum of Art, 1974), appendix.
[2] Ann Lee Morgan, ed., Dear Stieglitz, Dear Dove (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1988), 327.
Provenance1975
Charles and Inez Brooks. [1]
1994
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York. [2]
Notes:
[1] Exhibition Catalog, Arthur Dove.
[2] Loan Agreement.
Exhibition History1974-1975
Arthur Dove
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA (11/20/1974-1/5/1975)
1977
Modern Spirit
Arts Council of Great Britain, London, England (1977)
2000
Jazz: An American Muse
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (5/4/2000-8/30/2000)
2007
The Art of Dance
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (4/3/2007 - 9/16/2007)
2009
Steiglitz Circle: Beyond O'Keeffe
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (6/6/2009-11/15/2009)
Published ReferencesMorgan, Ann Lee. Arthur Dove: Life and Work, with a Catalogue Raisonne. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1984, p. 213.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg 252, 253
Status
Not on view