Arthur Dove

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Arthur Garfield Dove (August 2, 1880 – November 23, 1946) was an American artist. He was one of America's first abstract painters.

Dove was born to a wealthy family in Canandaigua, New York. As a child he was befriended by a neighbor named Newton Weatherby. Weatherby was a naturalist who helped form Dove’s appreciation of nature. He was also an amateur painter who gave Dove pieces of leftover canvas to work with.

At college he was chosen to illustrate the Cornell University yearbook. After graduation he became a well known commercial illustrator in New York City.

In 1907, Dove and his wife traveled to France. While there he joined a group of experimental artists from the United States. One of these artists was Alfred Henry Maurer. Dove and Maurer remained friends until Maurer’s suicide in 1932.

Dove returned to America in 1909 and met Alfred Stiegltiz. Alfred Stiegltiz was a well known photographer and gallery owner who was very active in promoting modern art in America. He was also the husband of Georgia O’Keeffe. With Stiegltiz’s support, Dove produced what is known as the first purely abstract paintings to come out of America.

Dove's work was based on nature and he referred to his form of abstraction as "extraction," pulling the abstract forms out from a landscape.

He used a wide range of media, sometimes in unconventional combinations. Dove also invented an experimental technique that involved applying paints like hand mixed oil or tempera over a wax emulsion. The pigments from the paint then bond to the wax molecules.

In spite of support from various members of the art community, it was often necessary for Dove to earn money through farming, fishing and commercial illustration.

He spent a seven year period on a houseboat called Mona after separating from his first wife in 1920. He suffered a heart attack in 1939. His health never fully returned. Arthur Dove died on November 23, 1946 following a second heart attack and kidney failure.

1 Selected works
2 Selected list of works
3 Sources
4 External links

[edit] Selected works

Nature Symbolized (1911)	Thunderstorm (1917-20)	Dark Abstraction (Woods) (1920)	Nature Symbolized or Reefs (1924)
The Intellectual (1925)	The Critic (1925)	Me and the Moon (1937)	Tanks (1938)