"I HAVE A NUMBER OF WAYS OF WORKING, AND THEY ARE ALL PART OF THE SAME WAY, AND I SELDOM DISCARD WAYS, BUT ADD TO THEM AND USE THE OLD ONES AND CARRY THEM ALL WITH ME. I WANT TO EXPRESS MY FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS, AND I WANT TO DISTILL THEM SO THEY WILL BE PRISTINE AND CLEAR AND COME BACK AT ME WITH A NEW LIFE THEY NEVER HAD WHEN INSIDE ME."
Dorothy Dehner was an Abstract Expressionist sculptor, painter, poet, and critic whose career spanned from the late 1920s until nearly the day of her death in 1994.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1901, Dehner enjoyed a happy early childhood, and was encouraged by her parents to immerse herself in art and culture. But at just 12 years old, her father passed away due to pneumonia, and while Dehner was in high school, Dehner's mother and sister also tragically died within the span of just one year. Following their deaths, Dehner moved in with her aunts, finished high school, and enrolled at the University of California Los Angeles to study art and literature. In 1923, she relocated to New York to pursue dance and acting, but abandoned her theater career after two years.
Dehner took up an interest in the visual arts after a nine-month solo trip to Europe, where she saw the 1925 Art Deco exhibition in Paris. When she returned to New York in October of the same year, she enrolled at the Art Students League of New York. Shortly after beginning her studies, she met David Roland Smith, who had just moved into the same apartment building. Smith, then a copywriter for a financial company, had been encouraged to speak to Dehner by their landlord after he inquired about art schools. On Dehner's suggestion, Smith promptly enrolled at the League, and she served as his informal tutor, shaping his taste in art and literature.
Dehner married Smith in 1927, and the couple moved to a farm in Bolton Landing, New York, in 1929. There, she continued her art education while supporting Smith's burgeoning career. However, Dehner's studies and career development were hindered by Smith's domineering influence and their tumultuous marriage, which ultimately ended in divorce in 1952. This separation marked a critical turning point as Dehner was for the first time able to fully dedicate herself to her own art.
After the divorce, Dehner's career flourished. She for the first time fully embraced sculpture and developed her own artistic voice, incorporating diverse expressive languages and references to modernist traditions including Cubism, Surrealism, and Russian Constructivism. Dehner's sculptures often explored themes of movement and transformation, reflecting her interest in the natural world and human experience, yet also possessed totemic qualities, resembling mythological and religious icons.
Her entire body of work, which spans drawings, watercolors, prints, and reliefs, reflects a sustained engagement with abstract forms and symbolism. She continued to innovate with new materials and techniques throughout the 1960s and 1970s, producing larger works and wood constructions that drew from architecture. She received significant recognition during her lifetime, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985, thanks in part to friends and collaborators like Louise Nevelson and John Cage, and also in part to the advocacy of Dr. Joan Marter, who extensively chronicled Dehner's work and contributions to art.
Even against that of her better-known peers, Dehner's work stood out for its originality and expressive power. Dehner's legacy is marked by her resillience and enduring contributions to both Abstract Expressionism and the field of sculpture.