Telegraph Pole

Arthur DoveWW-1929-017632

1929·Oil, metallic paint, and pencil on steel plate·71.1 × 50.5 cm (28 × 19 7/8 in.)

<p>“Being a wet telegraph pole, some flying leaves and silver.” This is how Arthur Dove briefly described this painting, which juxtaposes the geometry of the pole in the extreme foreground against the curves of distant hills. Dove evoked the wetness of the scene by employing metallic paint on a steel plate; these unconventional materials makes the entire composition shimmer and shine. The varied brushwork and pulsating layers of color in the background further enliven the work’s appearance, suggesting that this industrial object has been subsumed into its natural setting.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1929
Medium: Oil, metallic paint, and pencil on steel plate
Dimensions: 71.1 × 50.5 cm (28 × 19 7/8 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Arthur Dove

Artist

Arthur Dove

Painting

Arthur Garfield Dove was an American artist. An early American modernist, he is often considered the first American abstract painter. Dove used a wide range of media, sometimes in unconventional combinations, to produce his abstractions and his abstract landscapes. Me and the Moon from 1937 is a good example of an Arthur Dove abstract landscape and has been referred to as one of the culminating works of his career. Dove made a series of experimental collages in the 1920s. He also experimented with techniques, combining paints like hand mixed oil or tempera over a wax emulsion as exemplified in Dove's 1938 painting Tanks, in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

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