jim dine: years ago & now

J IM DINE: YEARS AGO & NOW

JIM KEMPNER FINE ART

Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to announce Jim Dine: Years Ago & Now, an exhibition which celebrates the illustrious career of one of the most influential Post-War American artists. The exhibition will feature five of the artist’s most recent editions, a significant painted bronze Venus sculpture, and a selection of prints and unique work from the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition will be on view from February 11th– March 29th, 2016. An opening reception for the public will be held on Thursday, February 11th, from 5– 7 pm.

Jim Dine’s work is characterized by the emergence and reemergence of select motifs, such as the heart, the robe, and the Venus. Primary Ladies is a striking bronze sculpture consisting of three variegated Venus bodies, modeled after the Hellenistic sculpture Venus de Milo from 100 BC. Dine brought the image of the Venus to light in painting, printmaking, and sculpture in the late 1970s- 1980s. For Dine, the Venus was “a link to art history… and is about the relationship of art and the history of art to objects.” Noted for their corporeality, Dine’s Venus sculptures have transformed a popular icon in Western art. A monumental outdoor version entitled Looking Toward the Avenue can be seen on New York’s Sixth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets.

Chartres, 2nd Version; 2015; Years Ago, 2015; and Watercolored by Jim, 2015 are all variations on the image of the heart. Originally developed from sets he designed in 1965 for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the heart is another dominant theme in the artist’s oeuvre. Variations of the motif are seen in Hearts in the Meadow, a mixed-media work on paper from 1970 and Heart in a Landscape from 1968. Heart in a Landscape, a small oil on canvas, is one example of the artist’s more personal paintings. The inscription in the top right corner (“for BEANS”) is a reference to Jim Dine’s friend Sergio Emidi, an Italian actor from the 1960s and 1970s, who was nicknamed “Fagiolo” after his favorite food, beans.

For the past five decades, Jim Dine has integrated printmaking as a dominant art making method, exploring the full range of its aesthetic potential. His editions showcase a mastery of combining woodcut, etching, aquatint, lithography and hand painting on paper. The exhibition features a sampling of Dine’s most recognizable imagery spanning the length of his career. Zein Robe, 2014 is a lithograph with hand painting of a robe, one of Dine’s most prolific motifs. His adaption of the robe began in 1964 and has re-appeared sporadically in his work transforming from a self-portrait to a more iconic, expressive, and spiritual vehicle. Other selections from the exhibition include select etchings and drawings of various tools, another prominent theme in Dine’s work.

Jim Dine (b. 1935, Cincinnati, Ohio) moved to New York City in 1958 and became an instant figure in the New York art world, staging many of the first “Happenings” alongside artists Claus Oldenburg, Allan Kaprow, and Robert Whitman. Since his first solo exhibition in 1960, Dine’s work has been the subject of more than 300 solo exhibitions worldwide. He has had surveys and retrospectives at major institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art (1970); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY (1999); and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (2004). He has received numerous awards and honors including the Cincinnati Art Award from the Cincinnati Museum of Art (2010); the Legacy in Lithography Award from Tamarind Institute, College of Fine Arts, University of New Mexico (2010); the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 10th Annual Medal Award (2005); the Library Lions Award, New York Public Library (2003); and others. Dine’s work is held in major public collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Cleveland Museum of Art; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Tate Gallery, London; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and others.

Join our discussion on Twitter (@JimKempnerFA), Facebook (@JimKempnerFineArt), and Instagram (@JimKempnerFineArt), using the hashtags #JimDine #YearsAgo&Now #JimKempnerFineArt. For more information, please contact gallery director Dru Arstark, [email protected], or associate director Sarah Bielicky, [email protected].

Jim Dine: Years Ago & Now February 11th, 2016 - March 29th, 2016

Red Chair #3, 1958.Paper collage on composition board.49 x 48”.

[email protected] | www.jimkempnerfineart.com

Blue Crescent Wrench, 1962.Pastel and pencil on paper.23 1/8 x 18”.


Heart in a Landscape, 1968.Oil on canvas.12 x 8”.



Untitled (Hammer and Rainbow).Pencil and watercolor.19 x 8 1/2”.


Hearts in a Meadow, 1970.Oil, enamel, graphite, charcoal, glitter and collage elements on paper.22 3/4 x 28 1/4”.


Bolt Cutters (first state), 1972.Etching.39 1/2 x 29 1/2”. Edition 75.


Five Paintbrushes (third state), 1973.Etching.30 x 35 1/2”. Edition 28.


Shoe (third state), 1973.Etching.22 x 30”. Edition 15.


Four German Brushes (Williams 3), 1973.Etching.30 x 22”. Edition 75.


Four German Brushes (Williams 4), 1973.Etching.30 x 22”. Edition 75.


Toothbrush, 1973.Etching.22 x 17 1/2”. Edition 35.


Hammer and Awl, 1975.Pencil on paper.15 x 9”.


Shovel, 1975.Pastel, graphite, charcoal, spray enamel on paper.59 3/4 x 12 1/8”.


Saw, 1976.Etching.42 1/2 x 30”. Edition 30.


Watercolor in the Galilee 2001.Etching and aquatint.30 3/4 x 22 1/2”. Edition 50.


A Magenta Robe, A Rose Robe, 1979.Etching and aquatint with hand coloring in oil.41 x 58 1/2”. Edition 16. Each unique.


Primary Ladies, 2008.Painted bronze.63 x 72 x 33”. Edition 8 + 2 AP.


The New Building, 2013.Woodcut, etching with hand drawing.64 x 48”. Edition 30.


Zein Robe, 2014.Lithograph over relief with hand painting.54 x 37”. Edition 11.


Yesteryear, 2015.Offset lithograph and copperplate etching.28 1/4x 43”. Edition 9.


Watercolored by Jim, 2015.Copperplate etching and hand painting on Hahnemühle paper.42 x 56 1/2”. Edition 6.


Years Ago, 2015.Offset lithograph and soft ground etching.28 1/4 x 43”. Edition 7.

Jim Kempner Fine Art specializes in contemporary paintings, sculpture, photography, and works on paper, with a special emphasis on contemporary master prints and outdoor sculpture. Our inventory appeals to the established as well as beginning collector. We work closely with art advisors, designers, corporations and museums to expand and enrich their varied collections.

Located in the heart of Chelsea, the gallery’s three story modernist-inspired structure designed by architects Smith & Thompson boasts one of the few outdoor sculpture gardens in New York City, and is included in a number of books about contemporary architecture. Our inventory includes work by Donald Baechler, John Baldessari, Louise Bourgeois, Christo, Chuck Close, Richard Diebenkorn, Jim Dine, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Spencer Finch, Jane Hammond, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, Jasper Johns, Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, William Kentridge, Jeff Koons, Robert Mangold, Robert Motherwell (Jim Kempner Fine Art represents the Dedalus Foundation, Robert Motherwell’s print archive, in New York), Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Longo, Elizabeth Peyton, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Paula Scher, Sean Scully, Frank Stella, Donald Sultan, Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol and others.

Among the contemporary artists whose work we represent are Robert Attanasio, Christopher Beane, Stanley Casselman, Long Bin Chen, Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gómez, Rinaldo Frattolillo, Gianfranco Gorgoni, John Grande, John Henry, Charlie Hewitt, Jay Kelly, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Jerry Mischak, David Mitchell, Craig Norton, Greg Parker, Robert Petersen, Randy Regier, Tom Slaughter, Pal Svensson and Boaz Vaadia.

Formerly a private dealer, Jim Kempner opened his gallery, Jim Kempner Fine Art, at its present location in the fall of 1997. Dru Arstark has been the gallery director since 1998 and Sarah Bielicky has been the associate director since 2011. Jim Kempner has published prints by Rinaldo Frattolillo, Charlie Hewitt, Robert Indiana, Paula Scher, Bernar Venet, in addition to Gianfranco Gorgoni’s photo-graphs of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Other publications include Ligorano/Reese’s Line Up portfolio, Untitled 2001 silkscreen, and the DEMOCRACY lightbox, made in collaboration with gallery director Dru Arstark, under the name Madness of Art Editions. Addi-tionally, he has published his first editioned print, Apocryphal Now, in 2014.

J IM KEMPNER FINE ART

501 West 23rd Street

New York, NY 10011

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[email protected]

jimkempnerfineart.com

Jim Kempner Fine Art @JimKempnerFA@jimkempnerfineart

jim dine: years ago & now

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