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拍品专文
Fellow Stieglitz Circle artist Georgia O’Keeffe once described her friend Arthur Dove as “the only American painter who is of the earth,” (as quoted in D.B. Balken, et al., Arthur Dove: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1997, p. 28) and indeed many of Dove’s best works are reflections on his deep connection to the American landscape. Two Brown Trees belongs to a group of works derived from the artist literally immersing himself in his environment in the cold Geneva, New York, winter of 1933. Where most might overlook the frozen, somnolent landscape, Dove saw inspiring forms glowing with energy and pictorial possibility. With intrinsically organic origins yet inherently modern in execution, the present work epitomizes the inventive approach to American art that Dove championed, pushing representation to the very edge of abstraction and importantly influencing the post-War Abstract Expressionist movement to come.
In 1925, Dove wrote his poem A Way to Look at Things for an exhibition at the Anderson Galleries: “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 seagull 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.” Anne Cohen DePietro writes of the poem, “While its allusive, abstract language clearly speaks to the intangible magic that informs Dove’s work, it also addresses intangible themes…and the inexorable rhythms of nature that inspire him throughout his career. In his search to evoke the essence of his subjects, Dove captured the ebb and flow of the tides, the movement of celestial bodies, the raging of storms and steady descent of blanketing snow. And throughout his life, even as he moved steadily toward abstraction, his work retained discernible elements that eloquently convey the spirit and geography of the rural communities in which he lived.” (Arthur Dove Watercolors, New York, 2006, p. 19) Indeed, painted with variations of brown, ochre, blue and green, Two Brown Trees retains the recognizable local colors of the Geneva landscape. Yet, Dove transcends his subject from a painting of trees to a thoroughly modern exploration of overlapping forms and splaying diagonals that seem to grow and stretch across the canvas.
Dove’s interest in pushing the boundaries of abstraction is recognized as American art’s earliest forays into nonobjective painting and draws not only on visual inspirations found within nature, but also from its its spiritual and energetic rhythms. Trees provided Dove with endless inspiration, with their exaggerated physicality, extraordinary presence and, importantly, their inner life and profound ability to sustain it. He highlights their dynamism in works such as Tree of 1934 (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri) and abstracts them completely in works including Tree Composition of 1937 (Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York). In Two Brown Trees, Dove paints with clearly visible brushstrokes resembling pulsations of energy. Simultaneously, the painting’s sense of vitality is further enhanced through the subtle, wintery glow that backlights the curving, biomorphic forms to suggest an inner life.
Georgia O’Keeffe stated that she was first attracted to Dove’s work “for its abstract organic shapes that coalesced into a seductive, undulating, rhythmic pattern.” (as quoted in D.B. Balken, Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2009, p. 21) O'Keeffe and Dove shared a profound connection to nature, and the two artists were introduced by Alfred Stieglitz, who represented both at his gallery “291.” Their shared commitment and spiritual connection to the natural world led to a mutual admiration for one another's work and a lifelong artistic dialogue. O'Keeffe notably collected Dove’s work, reflecting, “Dove had an earthy, simple quality that led directly to abstraction. His things are very special. I always wish I’d bought more of them.” (as quoted in Dove/O’Keeffe: Circles of Influence, p. 25)
As demonstrated by Two Brown Trees, Dove’s patron Duncan Phillips praised of his work, “Mat surfaces could be rich and sensuous. Flat painting…could be vibrant. Magic could come from contour and from color and texture and retain the first joy of direct experience. There was the earthly, the elemental, to be savored in paint, and yet subtleties of modulated tone were not to be thought inconsistent with nature’s organic forms and the happy accidents that nature provides for art in time, light, and weather.” (Arthur G. Dove, Berkeley, California, 1958, p. 14) The present work epitomizes this careful balance between inspiration from nature and a focus on an individual exploration into abstract technique, which characterizes Dove’s revolutionary body of work.
In 1925, Dove wrote his poem A Way to Look at Things for an exhibition at the Anderson Galleries: “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 seagull 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.” Anne Cohen DePietro writes of the poem, “While its allusive, abstract language clearly speaks to the intangible magic that informs Dove’s work, it also addresses intangible themes…and the inexorable rhythms of nature that inspire him throughout his career. In his search to evoke the essence of his subjects, Dove captured the ebb and flow of the tides, the movement of celestial bodies, the raging of storms and steady descent of blanketing snow. And throughout his life, even as he moved steadily toward abstraction, his work retained discernible elements that eloquently convey the spirit and geography of the rural communities in which he lived.” (Arthur Dove Watercolors, New York, 2006, p. 19) Indeed, painted with variations of brown, ochre, blue and green, Two Brown Trees retains the recognizable local colors of the Geneva landscape. Yet, Dove transcends his subject from a painting of trees to a thoroughly modern exploration of overlapping forms and splaying diagonals that seem to grow and stretch across the canvas.
Dove’s interest in pushing the boundaries of abstraction is recognized as American art’s earliest forays into nonobjective painting and draws not only on visual inspirations found within nature, but also from its its spiritual and energetic rhythms. Trees provided Dove with endless inspiration, with their exaggerated physicality, extraordinary presence and, importantly, their inner life and profound ability to sustain it. He highlights their dynamism in works such as Tree of 1934 (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri) and abstracts them completely in works including Tree Composition of 1937 (Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York). In Two Brown Trees, Dove paints with clearly visible brushstrokes resembling pulsations of energy. Simultaneously, the painting’s sense of vitality is further enhanced through the subtle, wintery glow that backlights the curving, biomorphic forms to suggest an inner life.
Georgia O’Keeffe stated that she was first attracted to Dove’s work “for its abstract organic shapes that coalesced into a seductive, undulating, rhythmic pattern.” (as quoted in D.B. Balken, Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2009, p. 21) O'Keeffe and Dove shared a profound connection to nature, and the two artists were introduced by Alfred Stieglitz, who represented both at his gallery “291.” Their shared commitment and spiritual connection to the natural world led to a mutual admiration for one another's work and a lifelong artistic dialogue. O'Keeffe notably collected Dove’s work, reflecting, “Dove had an earthy, simple quality that led directly to abstraction. His things are very special. I always wish I’d bought more of them.” (as quoted in Dove/O’Keeffe: Circles of Influence, p. 25)
As demonstrated by Two Brown Trees, Dove’s patron Duncan Phillips praised of his work, “Mat surfaces could be rich and sensuous. Flat painting…could be vibrant. Magic could come from contour and from color and texture and retain the first joy of direct experience. There was the earthly, the elemental, to be savored in paint, and yet subtleties of modulated tone were not to be thought inconsistent with nature’s organic forms and the happy accidents that nature provides for art in time, light, and weather.” (Arthur G. Dove, Berkeley, California, 1958, p. 14) The present work epitomizes this careful balance between inspiration from nature and a focus on an individual exploration into abstract technique, which characterizes Dove’s revolutionary body of work.