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Dorothy DehnerDisappointment on Sundayc. 1950
c. 1950
About the Item
Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994) was an influential American artist who worked with drawing, painting, printmaking, and most notably sculpture.
Despite her artistic contributions, Dehner's legacy was overshadowed for many years by her ex-husband, the acclaimed sculptor David Smith. Stifled by their tumultuous relationship, Dehner only fully committed to her practice after divorcing him in 1951. This break was highly fruitful for her output and reputation in the years following.
After the divorce, Dehner refined her artistic voice and expanded her practice to include printmaking and sculpture. Her new-found independence and renewed ambition led to a pivotal relationship with the esteemed printmaking studio Atelier 17. Working there she formed a close and enduring friendship with Louise Nevelson.
Today Dehner has been re-embraced and repositioned in the American art canon. Her work is best understood and appreciated in the context of not only David Smith, but other artists dedicated to sculpture including Lee Bontecou, Ruth Asawa and of course Louise Nevelson.
Simultaneously spontaneous and architectural, Dehner's oeuvre resists categorization. Her works on paper (especially from the 1950s) are an essential and important part of her oeuvre, although she is known as a sculptor.
This intimate and impactful work on paper perfectly demonstrates Denher's distinct brand of abstraction, characterized by fine, precise lines that converge and intercept at various degrees. It is both architectural and spontaneous.
Dehner had a strict palette and used color very judiciously. Typical of her creations from the 1950's, the structures or dominant forms are rendered in watercolor or ink. However they are highlighted, or here in this work both enlivened or embellished with splatter of moss green.
Although Dehner's work can be easily understood in the context of abstract expressionism, she isn't afraid to make allusions to personal emotions and possibly her own personal experiences. An abstraction such as this one takes on a different significance when we consider the title "Disappointment on Sunday". Is this a diaristic creation? Take a look at another Dehner work, with a startlingly different mood and aesthetic entitled "Woman in a Tantrum".
From 1948 until her passing in 1994, Dehner had over 50 solo exhibitions and completed numerous public commissions for prestigious organizations such as New York Medical College, Rockefeller Center, and the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation.
To learn more about Dorothy Dehner's works on paper, we recommend exploring the online holdings of her work at the National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.) and the MoMA (NYC).
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“Disappointment on Sunday”
USA, circa 1950
Ink and watercolor on paper
Titled lower left
Signed with the artist's initials verso and "ND #2"
(indicating it is the second drawing from the Nickel Drawing series)
4"H 5"W (work)
12"H 15"W (framed)
Framed with museum glass
Very good condition
- Creator:Dorothy Dehner (1901-1994, American)
- Creation Year:c. 1950
- Dimensions:Height: 4 in (10.16 cm)Width: 5 in (12.7 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Very good condition.
- Gallery Location:Toronto, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 03-251stDibs: LU215215941112
Dorothy Dehner
Dorothy Dehner was one of the important women artists in the United States in the mid-century American abstraction movement (the Museum of Modern Art in New York has more than a dozen of her works in its collection). Unfortunately, she has been overshadowed by the titanic presence of David Smith (the most important sculptor of the Abstract Expressionist period), whom she married when they were both young artists experimenting with abstraction in the 30s. Though she, too, devoted an amount of time making sculpture, she was the more talented painter of the two (they separated in the 40s, allegedly due to Smith's feelings of competition with Dehner). Her pen and ink and watercolor works are the most moving, expressive and original of her creations. When the Museum of Modern Art decided to buy one of her works for its permanent collection in 1953, it was one of these watercolors it chose. The Jewish Museum and Cleveland Museum of Art have held major retrospectives of Dehner's work. In 1993, the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased one of Dehner's watercolors from this same period. Her work is also in the British Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, Phillips Collection (Washington D. C.), Philadelphia Museum of Art and Museum of American Art, among others.
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By Dorothy Dehner
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994) was an influential American multidisciplinary artist who worked with drawing, painting, printmaking, and most notably sculpture.
Dehner's legacy has been overshadowed for many years by her ex-husband, the acclaimed sculptor David Smith. Stifled by their tumultuous relationship, Dehner only fully committed to her practice after divorcing him in 1951. This break was highly fruitful for her artistic output and reputation in the following years.
After the divorce, Dehner refined her artistic voice and expanded her practice to include printmaking and sculpture. Her new-found independence and renewed ambition led to a pivotal relationship with the esteemed printmaking studio Atelier 17. Working there she formed a close and enduring friendship with Louise Nevelson.
Today Dehner has been re-embraced and repositioned in the American art canon. Her work is best understood and appreciated in the context of not only David Smith but other artists dedicated to sculpture including Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, and of course Louise Nevelson.
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