Dove, Arthur

Dove, Arthur (b Canandaigua, NY, 2 Aug. 1880; d Huntington, Long Island, NY, 23 Nov. 1946). American painter, a pioneer of abstract art. For most of his career he earned his living as a commercial illustrator and he was often in great financial difficulty (even though he was supported by Stieglitz and Duncan Phillips). He visited Europe in 1907–9, coming into contact with Fauvism and other avant-garde movements, and in 1910 he painted the first abstract pictures in American art (Abstraction No. 1–Abstraction No. 6, priv. coll.), which are somewhat similar to Kandinsky's work of the same time. He never exhibited these in his lifetime, but he displayed similar work at his first one-man exhibition at Stieglitz's 291 Gallery in 1912. Typically his abstractions are based on natural forms, suggesting the rhythms of nature with their pulsating shapes (Sand Barge, 1930, Phillips Coll., Washington). During the 1940s he experimented with a more geometric type of abstraction (That Red One, 1944, William H. Lane Foundation, Leominster, Massachusetts). In his later years he took a leading part in the campaign to win artists royalty rights for the reproduction of their work.