Art: Pioneer Abstractionist

Arthur Garfield Dove owed his given names to the Republican presidential ticket* of 1880, the year he was born in Upstate New York. But he owed nothing to their plodding example, for Dove was a trail blazer. Long before fashions changed. Dove pointed—and painted—toward abstract expressionism. After a start as a successful magazine illustrator, he turned to illustrating inner vision rather than outer void. Wrote Humorist Bert L. Taylor of Dove:

It’s all as simple as can be, He paints the things you cannot see.

At first. Dove painted in the style of Cézanne. But later, he would omit what he called “innumerable little facts” to try for the essence of the subject. Thus he could paint Clouds and Summer (see color) in a way that told much about all clouds and every summer.

Seeking insights, he began with out-sights. “Have been trying to memorize this storm all day so that I can paint it,” wrote Dove. When memory joined method to produce patterns of color, with representation virtually removed, he started toward a style that a whole generation of modern American artists have since pursued. In 1910 he painted abstractions and called them just that. Dove “found a new way of presenting his feelings for landscape even before the Russian-born Kandinsky ∣Europe’s “father of abstractionism” ∣ hit upon a similar method of freeing colors and lines.” says Worcester Art Museum Director Dan Rich.

Dove’s flight was no easy one. The public would not fly along with him. Before his death in 1946, he perched in many New York and Connecticut rookeries (yawl, yacht club, farmhouse, abandoned roller skating rink, abandoned post office) and pecked away at many trades (chicken farmer, lobsterman ). But he worked stubbornly at translating matter into spirit, and buried in the ground work that failed his standards. Currently on display in a major retrospective at the Worcester Art Museum are 43 works that stayed above ground. They look contemporary as can be; and perhaps are not a bad bet to outlast today’s more modish explorations of the same unreality.

*James Garfield, who won the election only to be mortally wounded 120 days after his inauguration, and Chester Arthur, who as Vice President succeeded Garfield.