Dorothy Hood

For the illustrator born in 1902, see Dorothy Hood (illustrator).
Dorothy Rose Hood
Born August 27, 1919
Bryan, Texas
Died October 28, 2000 (aged 81)
Houston, Texas
Education
Occupation Painter
Movement Modernism
Spouse(s) José María Velasco Maidana
Awards

Dorothy Hood (August 27, 1919 - October 28, 2000) was an American painter in the Modernist tradition. Her work is in private collections and at Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.[1]

Early life

Hood was born in Bryan, Texas and raised in Houston.[2] She was the daughter of a banker.[3] Hood's mother encouraged Dorothy to pursue her artistic talents,[4] but Dorothy was raised mainly by household servants due to times her mother's mental illness that resulted in long sanitarium stays.[3][4] Her parent's subsequent divorce led to Hood taking "refuge in drawing."[3]

Education and early career

In high school, an art teacher submitted her work to a competition and she won a National Scholastic Scholarship.[4] Hood went to the Rhode Island School of Design on this four-year scholarship in the early 1930s.[5] Afterwards, she took classes at the Art Students League of New York, and earned money working as a model.[3]

Hood went to Mexico on what was intended to be a short vacation.[3] Instead, Hood spent twenty years in Mexico (1941-1961).[1] During this time, she was part of a group of intellectuals who were interested in critiquing the world around them.[2] Her friends and acquaintances at the time included novelist Ramon Sender, playwright Sophie Treadwell, painters Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington.[2] She was considered to be good friends with Carrington.[3] She also associated with writer, Luis Buñuel and artists Miguel Covarrubias, Rufino Tamayo, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.[3]

As Orozco said to me in moral tones of integrity 'tell the truth, Dorothy, no matter what the cost.'

So the truth was myself, recognizing myself should the results be beautiful or ugly, dark or light, assertive or peaceful.

—Dorothy Hood[2]

Hood exhibited in 1941 at the Gama Gallery in Mexico City,[4] which was commemorated in a poem written by Pablo Neruda,[3] who introduced Hood to the artist and ultimate mentor, Juan Orozco.[1][3] Hood returned to New York for a year's study and returned to Mexico.[4]

Marriage

Hood was married to Bolivian composer, José María Velasco Maidana in 1946.[3] They traveled together following Maidana's conducting jobs between Mexico City, New York and Houston until the early 1960s.[3] Around that time her husband began to show symptoms of Parkinson's disease and could no longer conduct.[3] They chose to move to Houston where they would have access to better medical care.[3] Hood supported herself and her husband, who died in 1989.[3]

Career

Dorothy Hood, Rending and Being Mountain, 1948, private collection

She was considered a "pioneer modernist."[1][6] Her work was a historical link between Mexican synthetic surrealism and the American Color Field School.[6] Hood was influenced by mythology, science and spirituality.[2] She also was very influenced by space exploration and outer space, which is reflected in her later works.[7] She has also cited the influence of Max Ernst on her work.[4] Hood's mature technique consists of poured paint in contrast with sharp, geometric figures.[4] Her sense of color also evolved over time. She started with a limited palette and later began to experiment with vivid juxtapositions of color.[4] Hood was drawn to a sense of place and the people who live in that place which help inform her choice of colors and imagery.[8] She called her work "landscapes of my psyche."[9] It was important to Hood that her art make viewers "feel what she felt."[3]

Her first exhibition took place in Mexico City at the Gama Gallery in 1941.[4] Her work consisted of realist portraits and depiction of animals.[4] Hood had a one-person show at the Marian Williard Gallery in New York City.[4] One of her drawings featured in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1945.[10] Throughout the 1950s, Hood's art evolved from its realist and surrealist roots into modern, abstract patterns of color.[4] Her style was called "abstract surrealism."[4]

In 1961, Hood taught at the School of Art of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.[4][11] She mentored painter, Ibsen Espada, who worked in her studio as a personal assistant.[12]

In 1970, an exhibition of her work was held at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas.[13] She had five one-person shows in major Texas museums by 1971[4] and Hood won the Childe Hassam Award in 1973.[14] The following year, a retrospective of her work traveled the United States, which exposed her work to a greater audience of collectors and clients.[4] In 1982, she was included in a documentary about women artists called From the Heart.[4] In 1985, an award-winning documentary about her work, The Color of Life, was produced by Carolyn Farb, who was a longtime friend and supporter of Hood.[3][15]

Hood created a collection of collages, such as those shown at the "Dorothy Hood Collages: Connecting Change" exhibition at the Wallace Wentworth Gallery in 1988.[16] She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women's Caucus for Art in 1988.[17]

Later years and death

In the late 1990s Hood discovered that she had breast cancer and died in October 2000.[3] Much of her art and ephemera was given to the Art Museum of South Texas in 2000.[18] Many of her papers, including eight scrapbooks and numerous documents of her career, are also on microfilm at the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.[19] An artist file documenting her career is held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum / National Portrait Gallery Library of the Smithsonian Libraries.[20]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Dorothy Hood". Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Kalil, Susie (2013). "Dorothy Hood Revisited". Fine Arts Magazine: 21–23. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 Gray, Lisa (23 February 2013). "Carolyn Farb seeks to resurrect Dorothy Hood". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy (1995). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century. New York: Garland. pp. 259–260. ISBN 9780824060497.
  5. ↑ Farb, Carolyn (2013). "On a Mission". Fine Arts Magazine: 24. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  6. ↑ Jones, Lynda (29 June 2012). "'Touched by Texas' Exhibit Helps Celebrate Art Museum of South Texas Anniversary". Corpus Christi Caller. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  7. ↑ Carlozzi, Annette (1986). 50 Texas Artists: A Critical Selection of Painters and Sculptors Working in Texas. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books. pp. 50–51. ISBN 0877013993.
  8. ↑ Gray, Lisa (21 December 2000). "Life in the Abstract". Houston Press. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  9. ↑ Newmeyer, Sarah (7 February 1945). "The Museum of Modern Art Press Release". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  10. ↑ Sandhu, Harbeer (13 October 2014). "Katie Robinson Edwards’ Midcentury Modern Art in Texas Offers a Definitive Take on an Overlooked Era". Texas Observer. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  11. ↑ Jones, Lynda (31 January 2015). "U.S.'s First Large Modern Art Exhibit to be in Corpus Christi". Corpus Christi Caller. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  12. ↑ "Dorothy Hood, recent paintings. An exhibition organized by the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, May 8-June 14, 1970". Library Catalog. Smithsonian Libraries. 1970. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  13. ↑ "The Gihon Art Collection". Helicon Nine 11: 32–41. 1984. ISSN 0197-3371. Retrieved 21 March 2015 – via EBSCO Host. (subscription required (help)).
  14. ↑ Hodge, Shelby (25 January 2013). "Texas Arts Pioneer Honored with a Texas A&M Monograph and a Special Retrospective". Culture Map: Houston. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  15. ↑ Robert Hobbs (1988). "Dorothy Hood Collages: Connecting Change". Library Catalog. Smithsonian Libraries. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Past Honorees". Women's Caucus for Art. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Dorothy Hood: A Pioneer Modernist". Art Museum of South Texas. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  18. ↑ "Dorothy Hood papers, 1888-1984". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Hood, Dorothy, 1919-". Smithsonian Libraries. Retrieved April 6, 2015.

External links

External media
Images
Slideshow of Dorothy Hood's works, Art Museum of South Texas
Video
Dorothy Hood: The Color of Life, documentary