Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994) was an influential American artist who worked with drawing, painting, printmaking, and most notably sculpture.
Dehner's legacy has been overshadowed by her ex-husband, the acclaimed sculptor David Smith, for many years. Stifled by their tumultuous relationship, Dehner would only fully commit to her practice after divorcing him in 1951. This break was highly fruitful for her artistic output and reputation in the following years.
After the divorce, Dehner refined her artistic voice and expanded her practice to include printmaking and sculpture. Her new-found independence and renewed ambition led to a pivotal relationship with the esteemed printmaking studio Atelier 17. Working there she formed a close and enduring friendship with Louise Nevelson.
Today Dehner has been re-embraced and repositioned in the American art canon. Her work is best understood and appreciated in the context of David Smith and other artists dedicated to sculpture including Lee Bontecou, Ruth Asawa, and of course Louise Nevelson.
This dynamic and impactful work on paper is a powerful example of Dehner's work from the 1950's. In this work Dehner is leaning into gestural and subconscious actions that defined abstract expressionism. While it is notably looser and bolder then some of the drawings we expect from this period, we find the artist creating forms that are a harbinger of the muscular sculpture she would create in a few years. Click here to see a bronze sculpture from 1964 in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Dehner had a strict palette and used color judiciously and sparingly. Like many of her creations from the 1950's, the structures or dominant forms are rendered in graphite or ink and they are highlighted, illuminated, or here in this work both shadowed or embellished with an energetic addition of terracotta.
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“Untitled” (aka "Bicep")
USA, 1954
Ink and watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lower left
19.75"H 26"W (work)
24.25"H 30.25"W (framed)
Framed with museum glass
Very good condition
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