TitleOpus 130-B
Artist
Edward Dugmore
(American, 1915 - 1996)
Date1987
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 48 × 38 in.
Framed: 48 1/2 × 38 5/8 × 1 1/2 in.
SignedSigned at bottom left corner: "DUGMORE '87".
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, May 26, 1993
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1993.19
Label TextEdward Dugmore was born in Connecticut and first studied at the Hartford Art School in the late 1930s, where he not only learned old master techniques of painting but also studied works from the northern and southern Renaissance. After receiving his bachelor's degree, Dugmore served in the Marine Corps during World War II. Following the war, Dugmore moved to San Francisco in 1948, where for two years he attended the California School of Fine Arts (renamed the San Francisco Art Institute) under the GI Bill and fell under the tremendous influence of Clyfford Still. In 1949 Dugmore was a founding member of the Metart Gallery, San Francisco's first cooperative gallery and an early venue for abstraction in that city. The name of the gallery was a conflation of the words metaphysical and art and in Dugmore's own words, it was intended to "break up this idea that we were all a gang of nonobjective painters." After two years at the CSFA Dugmore moved to Mexico, where he stayed briefly before moving to New York.In February 1953 Dugmore had his first solo exhibition in New York at the Stable Gallery. Along with that of fellow abstractionist Ernest Briggs, Dugmore's work showed similarities to Still's by incorporating large areas of dark color, often creating an abstract, chasm-like effect. This characteristic led Hans Hofmann to dub these two artists "Stillites," a pejorative term that was adopted by members of the New York School. During the 1950s and 1960s, however, Dugmore showed frequently in New York to some acclaim. Dore Ashton, one of the leading critics, praised the artist's paintings for their, "huge flat forms that seem to spread infinitely into space."
Like many of the artist's works, the enigmatic qualities of "Opus-130B" suggest more than a mere grappling with formal issues of the materials or the process of painting but rather an attempt to come to terms with emotional experiences that transcend the physical world. Dugmore was an enormous fan of Beethoven's music, and this painting is from a series of works he created based on the composer's quartets, hence its title. Like many of the artist's canvases, "Opus-130B" utilizes an overarching dark palette of blacks and grays in an attempt to evoke the feeling in Beethoven's work. Dugmore's approach to painting was synesthetic and he considered the painter a "philosopher with a brush," as revealed in an early artist statement: "If I say that I am not just making paintings, I would not be making myself clear. Of far greater significance and permanent value than what happens on the surface of the paintings are the ideas they are made of and the feelings they evoke when you look at them."
MNP
