Silver Tanks

Arthur DoveWW-1929-049940

1929·Oil and metallic paint on canvas, mounted on panel·54.6 × 77.5 cm (21 1/2 × 30 1/2 in.)

<p>In <em>Silver Tanks</em>, Arthur Dove juxtaposed contemporary manmade elements with the timeless forces of nature: large industrial tanks, which the artist rendered in metallic paint, are contrasted with a massive, glowing moon. By depicting only an abstracted section of the tanks, Dove accentuated their vertical thrust and downplayed their function. The moon, a shimmering blue circle, is enlarged and surrounded with a dynamic aura. Both moon and tanks are seen in close proximity, making the moon appear equal to the tanks. In doing so, Dove did not unabashedly celebrate the human power implied by such industrial structures. Instead, he presented them as transformed by nature’s strength.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1929
Medium: Oil and metallic paint on canvas, mounted on panel
Dimensions: 54.6 × 77.5 cm (21 1/2 × 30 1/2 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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