Jim Dine

Unusual techniques underlie the uniqueness of much of Dine's botanical work. On several ceramic jars created to his specifications, Dine has drawn towering foxgloves or a clump of crocuses or a strong old trunk with a tangled network of branches - giving these plants an unexpected context that provokes new thinking. His eagerness to get down his ideas leads Dine to press any blank surface into use: two handsome wooden panels, purchased to become doors, now provide the backgrounds for an imposing thicket of weeds and a glorious bunch of gladiolas.

Edited and with an Essay by Judith Brodie.

Majestic, dynamic and dense drawings on the theme of origins from Jim Dine This book presents for the first time Jim Dine's (born 1935) Secret Drawings, a series of 45 drawings made between 2012 and 2018 in his studios in Walla Walla, Washington, and Paris. These works are the product of Dine's intense, restless processes of application, erasure and most importantly reworking, using materials as diverse as charcoal, China ink, pastel, fixative, oil enamel and acrylic paints, as well as collage. The textures of the papers--"what I had on the floor and lying around"--vary greatly, as do Dine's tools, from sticks, brushes, knives and rotary grinders to the artist's bare hands. For Dine himself, these drawings hold a more personal secrecy: "84 years ago (I am 84 years old) I emerged from a dark place ... I have been depicting this landscape ever since ... the thicket of marks and the anatomical reference is all here on the paper."

Jim Dine, originally linked with Pop art, has developed into one of the most remarkable draftsmen and preeminent artists of our time.

With more than 100 illustrations -- approximately 48 in full color -- this innovative series offers a fresh look at the most creative and influential artists of the postwar era. Modern Masters form a perfect reference set for home, school, or library. Each handsomely designed volume presents: - A thorough survey of the artist's life and work- Statements by the artist- An illustrated chapter on technique- Chronology- Lists of exhibitions and public collections- Annotated bibliography- Index

This book of 85 drawings by Jim Dine illustrates the range and mastery of the artist's draftsmanship over more than four decades. The variety and breadth of the selection shows the intense way Dine observes the world around him and the excitement with which he records it on paper. Dine has said that his ability to draw is both a privilege and the result of hard physical training, compelling him to move inexorably forward to capture the next idea or the next psychological insight in drawings that are extraordinarily human. The selection includes early tool pencil drawings and collages, as well as powerful portrait and figure studies in a variety of media. Also included are large painterly pastels executed with a bravura that places them somewhere between painting and drawing. Dine sees his paintings and drawings as essentially conceived and developed in the same way--requiring the same amount of time, emotion and physicality of medium. The only difference, in the end, is that the drawings are on paper.

Catalog of an exhibition "Jim Dine--Theme and Variation: A Half Century of Printmaking" held at Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Nagoya, Japan, Apr. 23-Aug. 28, 2011.