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Dorothy Hood Paintings

American, 1919-2000

Dorothy Hood's oil-on-canvas paintings and works on paper combine Color Field techniques with painterly abstraction. Her use of decalcomania (a technique wherein paint pigments are allowed to flow and dry around an object which is subsequently removed, leaving a ghostly imprint on the canvas) belies her time spent with the Surrealist painters of Mexico City in the 1940s–60s.

The pictorial space and visual fissures of Hood’s large-scale paintings and works on paper recall a profound mindscape that echoes the concerns of these artists, such as José Clemente Orozco, who was her mentor. Having moved back to Houston in 1962, the impact of the Space Age and the fathoms of the cosmos influenced Hood’s paintings further. Her sense of color and deep exploration of materials is unrivaled. During her career, Hood appeared as one of the region's powerhouse female abstract painters, even though being a woman likely hindered the success she was due among her American Abstraction cohort.

Hood established herself as a pioneer of modernism from 1937, first as a scholarship student at the Rhode Island School of Design and briefly at the Art Students League in New York City, before settling in Mexico City in the 1940s. There, she would spend two decades embedded in the rich cultural fabric of a city in the midst of postwar and post-revolutionary bohemia. She befriended leading artists and intellectuals including Pablo Neruda, José Clemente Orozco, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Mathias Goeritz, Diego Rivera, and Rufino Tamayo.

In 1962 Hood returned to Houston and had solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Rice University, Houston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York; and her work is in the permanent collections of numerous American museums. During her lifetime, Hood’s work, from her formally rigorous yet metaphysical and intimate abstract paintings, to ink drawings on paper and collages, garnered an impressive exhibition history and support from influential critics, curators, and collectors including Philippe de Montebello, Dorothy Miller, Clement Greenberg, and Barbara Rose, among others.

In 2016, the Art Museum of South Texas (AMST), Corpus Christi, organized a major retrospective of Hood's works and published a monograph about her life and career which culminated in the exhibition and book entitled The Color of Being/El Color del Ser: DOROTHY HOOD (1918–2000). In the fall of 2018, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presented an exhibition entitled “Kindred Spirits, Louise Nevelson & Dorothy Hood,” mounting an unprecedented visual dialogue between the works of both artists. In 2019, McClain Gallery began representing the estate of the artist, held by the Art Museum of South Texas, and mounted a solo exhibition, “Dorothy Hood: Illuminated Earth.”

Find original Dorothy Hood art on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by McClain Gallery)

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Artist: Dorothy Hood
Binaki, Athens
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Binaki, Athens" is a collage on mat work by Dorothy Hood made between 1982-1997. The artwork size is 20 x 16 inches. The framed size is 26 5/8 x 22 5/8 x 1 1/2 inches. The work is s...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Genies
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Genies" is an oil on canvas painting by Dorothy Hood, painted in 1956. The artwork size is 35 1/2 x 45 3/8 inches. The framed size is 37 x 47 x 2 inches. The work is signed lower ri...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Going Forth V
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Going Forth V" is an oil on canvas painting by Dorothy Hood, made in 1997. The artwork size is 36 x 36 inches. The painting is signed upper right, "D Hood". Provenance: Dorothy Hoo...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Pedernal
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Pedernal" is an oil on canvas painting by Dorothy Hood, made in 1975. The artwork size is 35 x 27 inches. Signed verso, "D Hood". Provenance: Estate of the Artist New Gallery, Hous...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Face in the Sea
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"The Face in the Sea" is an oil on canvas painting by Dorothy Hood, made in the 1970s. The artwork size is 70 x 60 inches. For Hood, the sea and the infinite expanse of the cosmos a...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Space Signals
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Space Signals" is an oil on canvas painting by Dorothy Hood, made in the 1970s. The artwork size is 89 3/4 x 70 inches. When Dorothy Hood returned to Houston in 1962, to her delig...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Blue Waters
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Blue Waters" is an oil on canvas painting by Dorothy Hood. The painting size is 90 x 70 inches. Early in her maturation, Hood established herself as an artist of metaphysically cha...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Gravity's Rainbow II
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Gravity's Rainbow II" is an oil on canvas painting made by Dorothy Hood circa 1994. The artwork size is 70 x 60 inches. As Hood moved into the final years of her art and life, she ...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tough Homage to Arshile Gorky
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Tough Homage to Arshile Gorky" is an oil on canvas painting by Dorothy Hood. The artwork size is 89 3/4 x 50 inches. The framed size is 90 3/8 x 50 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches. The piece is ...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled (Black Beauty)
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Untitled (Black Beauty)" is an oil and acrylic on canvas painting made by Dorothy Hood in the 1990s. The artwork size is 48 x 60 inches. The piece is signed upper left, "D Hood". D...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Acrylic

Black Vessel
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Black Vessel" is an oil on canvas painting made by Dorothy Hood circa 1970-1980. The artwork size is 70 1/8 x 60 1/8 x 1 1/4 inches. At the core of Dorothy Hood's life and art is h...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Untitled" is an oil on canvas painting made by Dorothy Hood in the 1980s. The artwork size is 70 x 60 inches. Hood often acknowledged that Arshile Gorky, Edvard Munch, Henri Matiss...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled II
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Dallas, TX
Dorothy Hood Untitled II, 1982-1997 Collage on Mat 30 x 20 Following a 1981 trip to Egypt, hood collected printed papers which influenced her collage series for approximately a decade.
Category

20th Century Modern Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

Untitled
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Dallas, TX
Dorothy Hood Untitled, 1982-1997 Collage on Mat 30 x 20 Following a 1981 trip to Egypt, hood collected printed papers which influenced her collage series for approximately a decade.
Category

20th Century Modern Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

A Taste of Moonlight
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Dallas, TX
Dorothy Hood A Taste Of Moonlight, 1982-1997 Collage on Mat 30 x 20 Following a 1981 trip to Egypt, hood collected printed papers which influenced her collage series for approximate...
Category

20th Century Modern Dorothy Hood Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

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"Untitled, " Oil on Canvas - Abstract Surrealism
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"Crossing the Great Water 1, " Oil on Canvas - Abstract Surrealism
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Houston, TX
Large, yet reserved, this work employs vast fields of color to instill a feeling of distance, while the sharp treatment of line at the top serves to impress a sense of weight. Quietl...
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1970s Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

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Canvas, Oil

"Crossing the Great Water 2, " Oil on Canvas - Abstract Surrealism
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Houston, TX
This striking artwork by Dorothy Hood exhibits her unique style in a manner that is both sublime and beautiful. Hood’s mastery of abstraction is demonstrated here in such a way as to...
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1970s Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

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Canvas, Oil

"Untitled, " Oil on Canvas - Abstract Surrealism
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Houston, TX
Although smaller in scale than most of Hood’s paintings, this work’s size does not diminish its capacity to evoke a mystical and sublime sensibility. This work is evidence of Hood’s ...
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1980s Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

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Canvas, Oil

"Going Forth, " Oil on Canvas - Abstract Surrealism
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Houston, TX
Although smaller in scale than most of Hood’s paintings, this work’s size does not diminish its capacity to evoke a mystical and sublime sensibility. This work is evidence of Hood’s ...
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1970s Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

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Monumental Untitled Blue and White Abstract
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Houston, TX
This abstract piece by Dorothy Hood is monumental and extremely unique. It is so large that it was designed to be folded in half for transportation. It will need to be restored on site because of this design. DOROTHY HOOD (1918–2000) Born in Bryan, Texas, Dorothy Hood studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and Art Students League in New York. She then went to Mexico to further develop her skills and stayed for an extended length of time, traveling extensively through Central and South America. When she returned to Texas, she settled in Houston and was a prominent instructor at the Museum School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Selected Biographical and Career Highlights 1918 Born in Bryan, Texas 1937–40 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island 1940 Art Students League, New York, New York 1941–61 Lived in Mexico City and Puebla, Mexico 1962–76 Instructor, Museum School (now Glassell School), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas 1983 Mayor’s Award, Outstanding Contribution to the Visual Arts, Houston, Texas 1984 Texas Artist of the Year, Art League of Houston, Texas 1988 Outstanding Achievement in Visual Arts, Women’s National Caucus for Art 1990 Honorary Doctorate, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island 2000 Died...
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1970s Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

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Untitled- Red and Blue Abstract Painting
By Dorothy Hood
Located in Houston, TX
Very early Dorothy Hood Painting with bold reds, blues, and purples. One of her first in this series that became coveted. Was given by the artist...
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1950s Abstract Dorothy Hood Paintings

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Acrylic

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