Arthur Dove

New insights into the transformative work of this visionary modern artist accompany a comprehensive documentation of his paintings and assemblages

Arthur Dove, often credited as America’s first abstract painter, created dynamic and evocative images inspired by his surroundings, from the farmland of upstate New York to the North Shore of Long Island. But his interests were not limited to nature. Challenging earlier accounts that view him as simply a landscape painter, Arthur Dove: Always Connect reveals for the first time the artist’s intense engagement with language, the nature of social interaction, and scientific and technological advances. Rachael Z. DeLue rejects the traditional assumption that Dove can only be understood in terms of his nature paintings and association with photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz and his circle. Instead, she uncovers deep and complex connections between Dove’s work and his world, including avant-garde literature, popular music, meteorology, mathematics, aviation, and World War II. Arthur Dove also offers the first sustained account of Dove’s Dadaesque multimedia projects and the first explorations of his animal imagery and the role of humor in his art. Beautifully illustrated with works from all periods of Dove’s career, this book presents a new vision of one of America’s most innovative and captivating artists—and reimagines how the story of modern art in the United States might be told.

Arthur Dove, often credited as America’s first abstract painter, created dynamic and evocative images inspired by his surroundings, from the farmland of upstate New York to the North Shore of Long Island. But his interests were not limited to nature. Challenging earlier accounts that view him as simply a landscape painter, Arthur Dove: Always Connect reveals for the first time the artist’s intense engagement with language, the nature of social interaction, and scientific and technological advances. Rachael Z. DeLue rejects the traditional assumption that Dove can only be understood in terms of his nature paintings and association with photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz and his circle. Instead, she uncovers deep and complex connections between Dove’s work and his world, including avant-garde literature, popular music, meteorology, mathematics, aviation, and World War II. Arthur Dove also offers the first sustained account of Dove’s Dadaesque multimedia projects and the first explorations of his animal imagery and the role of humor in his art. Beautifully illustrated with works from all periods of Dove’s career, this book presents a new vision of one of America’s most innovative and captivating artists—and reimagines how the story of modern art in the United States might be told.

Arthur Dove: A Reassessment offers a fresh look at the art, life and literature of seminal American modernist painter Arthur Dove (1880-1946). It also introduces Dove's long-forgotten biographer Suzanne Mullett Smith, who worked with Alfred Stieglitz and the artist from 1943 to 1944 assembling a chronicle of Dove's art and life as well as a catalogue raisonné. By examining previously unpublished material, this volume explores the differences between Dove's public and private personas, especially the development of his art while living in Westport, Connecticut, from 1910 to 1920; his successful career as a chicken farmer; his complex relationship with his family; and the impact of his Christian background on some of his best-known works. This lavishly designed volume offers a fresh reexamination of Dove that is sure to become essential reading for scholars and fans alike.

From the outset of her career, Georgia O'Keeffe credited her introduction to modernism as deriving in part from a reproduction of a pastel by Arthur Dove she saw around 1913. By this time Dove was well established as the foremost modernist artist in America, yet O'Keeffe herself would later become a source of renewal for his work. Renowned scholar Debra Bricker Balken here offers the first investigation into the interrelationship between these two great artists. She shows that while Dove's sensual evocations of landscape--his abstractions of nature's undulating rhythms and forms--offered inspiration for O'Keeffe, the influence of O'Keeffe's work on Dove was equally significant. After 1930, Dove turned to O'Keeffe's early works for renewed aesthetic inspiration, mining, as he put it, her "burning watercolors." Beyond examining the impact of these mutual influences, this beautifully illustrated publication situates Dove and O'Keeffe within the circle of Alfred Stieglitz, and brings them into a fuller context within the modernist scene of the 1920s and 1930s. What emerges is a fascinating look at the first pivotal moment of modernism in America. Distributed for the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Exhibition Schedule: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts (June 7 - September 7, 2009)