JIM DINE Art Exhibit

reporter: Miguel Dominguez

February 21st in Chelsea was sort of a precursor to the Art Week that followed on March 8th with the opening of the Fountain Art fair at the Armory on Lexington Avenue. Countless galleries, mostly located in the stretch of one block—25th Street between 11th Avenue and West Street—had their art opening at the same time. Possessing only one single body, I only managed to attend a few. PACE Gallery was the first I attended, exhibiting at the time the paintings of Jim Dine.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Jim attended the University of Cincinnati, and received a BFA from Ohio University in 1957.

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.

Dine produced pop art with items from everyday life. In 1967 Dine moved to London, 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.