Arthur Dove: Yes, I Could Paint a Cyclone
Schoelkopf Gallery, New York
September 29 – December 1, 2023
Tanks and Snowbank, 1933
Oil and metallic paint on canvas in the artist’s frame, 18 x 24 inches
Photo Credit: Roz Akin | Private Collection, courtesy of Schoelkopf Gallery
Schoelkopf Gallery debuts its new Tribeca location at 390 Broadway, with an exhibition dedicated to pioneering American painter ARTHUR DOVE (1880–1946). The exhibition presents a dynamic selection of increasingly nonrepresentational works that trace Arthur Dove’s evolution as a painter and reveal his unyielding interrogation of established artistic convention.
The exhibition Arthur Dove: Yes, I Could Paint a Cyclone brings together over 70 significant works in various media, including oil, pastel, watercolor and charcoal. These pieces are drawn from distinguished foundations and private collections across North America, revealing Arthur Dove's profound influence and innovation in 20th century art. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring an essay by leading Dove scholar Rachael DeLue, Professor in American art at Princeton and author of the monograph Arthur Dove: Always Connect (2016).
Arthur Dove's career began in 1903 as an illustrator in New York before his transformative experiences in France in 1908–09, when he participated in the Salon d'Automne in Paris. Inspired by French modernist master Henri Matisse, Arthur Dove began to experiment with a painterly approach that would redefine American art.
Arthur Dove's breakthrough came in 1912 when legendary gallerist Alfred Stieglitz exhibited his groundbreaking series of daringly abstract pastels known today as the Ten Commandments (1911–12). These works marked the earliest expressions of his unique nonrepresentational style, provoking both controversy and excitement. His art captured the essence of nature, light, sound, and sensation in a liminal zone between abstraction and representation.
Throughout his career, Arthur Dove challenged traditional modes of expression, cementing his status as a pioneering painter and thinker within the emergence of abstraction in twentieth-century modernism. In the late 1930s, Arthur Dove and his wife, fellow artist Helen Torr, settled in Centerport, Long Island, where Dove continued to redefine his style. Despite declining health, he created works featuring geometric and biomorphic forms, foreshadowing movements like Abstract Expressionism and Color Field Painting.
Helmed by Andrew Schoelkopf, the gallery presents innovative and important works of American art encompassing both abstract and realist movements, while also shedding light on American artists deserving of greater attention. The gallery’s robust program celebrates the entire sweep of the American modernist movement from 1875 through present day. Schoelkopf Gallery’s move to Tribeca marks a significant milestone in its storied history, bringing a rich array of American art to the vibrant neighborhood. The new 4,800-square-foot gallery space allows the gallery to share its commitment to American art with a larger audience, as well as to support collectors, scholars, museums and the public with a program that expands the canon and creates community.
"Schoelkopf Gallery's new location in Tribeca is the physical embodiment of many changes in our business and in the field of American art. The location offers distinct physical spaces to enhance the gallery's programming and it gives our team more opportunities to tailor personal experiences for the most active collectors of American art. Over the last five years, more than 30% of the buyers from our gallery are those new to the field or who have not worked with us previously. This figure is the highest I have observed in my career and indicates there is a growing community for American art that is eager to learn more about the American Modernist movement."
SCHOELKOPF GALLERY
390 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10013
