Jim Dine

Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935) is an American pop artist. He is sometimes considered to be a part of the Neo-Dada movement. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, attended the University of Cincinnati and received a BFA from Ohio University in 1957. He first earned respect in the art world with his Happenings. Pioneered with artists Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow, in conjunction with musician John Cage, the "Happenings" were chaotic performance art that was a stark contrast with the more somber mood of the expressionists popular in the New York art world. The first of these was the 30 second "The Smiling Worker" performed in 1959.

Birth of "Pop Art"

In 1962 Dine's work was included, along with Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Dowd, Phillip Hefferton, Joe Goode, Edward Ruscha, and Wayne Thiebaud, in the historically important and ground-breaking "New Painting of Common Objects," curated by Walter Hopps at the Norton Simon Museum. This exhibition is historically considered one of the first "Pop Art" exhibitions in America. These painters started a movement, in a time of social unrest, which shocked America and the Art world and changed modern Art forever, "Pop Art".

In the early 1960s Dine produced pop art with items from everyday life. These provided commercial as well as critical success, but left Dine unsatisfied. In 1967 he moved to London, England where he was represented by the art dealer Robert Fraser, spending the next four years developing his art. Returning to the United States in 1971 he focused on several series of drawings. In the 1980s sculpture resumed a prominent place in his art. In the time since then there has been an apparent shift in the subject of his art from man-made objects to nature.

According to James Rado, co-author (with Gerome Ragni) of the rock musical Hair, it was a Dine piece entitled "Hair" which gave the name to the rock musical.

In 1984, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, exhibited his work as "Jim Dine: Five Themes," and in 1989, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts hosted "Jim Dine Drawings: 1973-1987".

2000 and on

In 2004, the National Gallery of Art, Washington organized the exhibition, "Drawings of Jim Dine." In the summer of 2007 he participated in the Chicago public art exhibition "."

Pinocchio Art

On May 16 2008, Jim Dine inaugurated his possibly greatest piece of art. A nine meter high bronze statue depicting a walking Pinocchio, named Walking to Borås. The statue is placed in the city of Borås, Sweden.

Dine previously worked on a commercial book, paintings, and sculptures that focused on Pinocchio. He feels that "the idea of a talking stick becoming a boy [is] like a metaphor for art, and it’s the ultimate alchemical transformation." [citation | title= Jim Dine | author=Robert Ayers | publisher=ARTINFO | year=2006 | date= May 23, 2006 | url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/16853/jim-dine/ | accessdate=2008-04-21 ]

ee also

*List of painters
*Claes Oldenburg
*Cy Twombly
*Marcel Duchamp
*Pop Art

Further reading

* Chris Bruce, compiler, with an essay by Jim Dine. "Extending the Artist's Hand: Contemporary Sculpture from the Walla Walla Foundry." Pullman, Washington: Museum of Art, Washington State University, 2004. ISBN 978-0-9755662-0-6
* John Coplans, "New Paintings of Common Objects", Artforum, November, 1962. (Illustrations)

References

External links

* [http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/dine/dine_ss.shtm Drawings of Jim Dine at the National Gallery of Art]
* [http://www.nga.gov/past/data/exh825.shtm Past Exhibition of Drawings of Jim Dine at the National Gallery of Art]
* [http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/past_exhibitions/dine/dine_bottom2.html Jim Dine Walking Memory]
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/dine_jim.html Jim Dine on ArtCyclopedia]

ources

* "Encyclopedia of Artists, volume 2", edited by William H.T. Vaughan, ISBN 0-19-521572-9, 2000