Jim Dine - New Now New York Wednesday, September 28, 2022 | Phillips

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  • "He is a poet who writes many of his poems on long sheets of paper tacked to the wall, which is to say he is poet-performer; a painter best known for his images of hearts and robes, motifs he began using in the mid-1960s; a draftsman and printmaker whose graphic mastery is beyond dispute; and, more recently, a sculptor." 
    —John Yau

    Alexandros of Antioch, Venus de Milo, 150–125 BCE
    Alexandros of Antioch, Venus de Milo, 150–125 BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris.

    Jim Dine’s reference to the Venus de Milo, one of the most widely circulated art historical figures and hailed for her unique beauty, is one of the artist’s most iconic subjects. Hailed as a leading figure within the Pop art movement, Dine is known for his repeated subjects. By positioning two figures of the Venus de Milo next to one another in Night Fields, Day Fields, 1999, Dine references the ubiquitous nature of the popularized Greek sculpture. The artist’s use of bright pigment in this example of Venus reinforces the Pop elements of his practice, tying together his diverse skillset within sculpture, painting and printmaking.

     "I'm devoted to the ideal of woman, as a figure of enchantment...When I went to the art supply store...and got a Venus de Milo figure...I was not responding to it as an object of Pop Art, or popular culture. I saw it as a timeless classical figure which held the memory of its magnificence...But then I knocked the head off of it and made it mine." 
    —Jim Dine

    By removing the figure’s heads, Dine shifts the focus from Venus’ neutral facial expression to her contorted, yet graceful posture. The recurring image of the Venus in Dine’s work harkens back to his earliest interest in art  history, when his "mother introduced [him] to classical work.” He had “photographs at home of Venus de Milo, of Winged victory at Samtheres . . . they hold a romance that I associate with my mother and the culture she gave me.”i  At once a call to remember the past and the role of formal beauty in art history, Night Fields, Day Fields is an enticing interpretation of an iconic symbol.

     

    i Jim Dine, quoted in ”Are people on Respirators Really Thinking About Rembrandt? – Jim Dine on His Show at Galerie Templon, Personal Histories and the Role of Art in Crisis (or Not),” DailyArt Magazine, May 19, 2020, online.

    • Provenance

      PaceWildenstein, New York (acquired directly from the artist)
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      Palm Beach, Gasiunasen Gallery, Jim Dine, February 10–March 10, 2000 (another example exhibited)
      Scottsdale, Bentley Gallery, Jim Dine: Monuments to the Human Condition, Sculpture and Paintings, January 18–February 28, 2001, n.p. (another example exhibited and illustrated)
      Stockholm, Wetterling Gallery, Jim Dine: New Paintings, Sculpture and Prints, May 8–May 31, 2003 (another example exhibited)
      West Palm Beach, Armory Art Center, Jim Dine, January 11–March 3, 2006 (another example exhibited)
      New York, PaceWildenstein, A Walk in the Park: Outdoor Sculpture at PaceWildenstein, June 19–July 24, 2009 (another example exhibited)
      Grand Rapids, Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Jim Dine: Sculpture, January 28–May 8, 2011 (another example exhibited)
      Athens, Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University, Jim Dine: Sculpture and Large Prints, July 8–November 27, 2011 (another example exhibited)
      Roslyn Harbor, Nassau County Museum of Art, Sculpture / Jim Dine / Pinocchio, March 31–July 8, 2012 (another example exhibited)

    • Literature

      Billy Wisse, "Dine-O-Mite!," City AZ: The Very Best of Phoenix, January–February 2001, p. 52 (another example illustrated)
      John Carlos Villani, "Jim Dine and His Art Machine," Arizona Republic, January 14, 2001 (another example illustrated)
      Danny Medina, "Jim Dine: Pop Art Patriarch," Art-Talk, February 2001 (another example illustrated on the cover)
      Joshua Rose, "Dine Hard: Artist Jim Dine Shows Us the Robes at Scottsdale Retrospective," Phoenix New Times, February 8, 2001 (another example illustrated)
      John Carlos Villani, "Jim Dine," Art News, March 2001, p. 160 (another example illustrated)
      Bruce Helander, "Fine Dining," Art of the Times, March 2006 (another example illustrated)
      "Jim Dine: Sculpture and Large Prints," Kennedy Museum of Art Magazine, Spring–Summer 2011, n.p. (another example illustrated)
      Christopher A. Yates, "A Dine Feast," Columbus Dispatch, August 28, 2011 (another example illustrated)
      Jim Dine, Jim Dine: Sculpture: Nightfield: Nightfields, Dayfields, Göttingen, 2011, no. 10, n.p. (another example illustrated)
      Sara Davidson, ed., Jim Dine: Sculpture, 1983–present, no. 1999.01, online (other examples illustrated)

    • Artist Biography

      Jim Dine

      American • 1935

      There's a considerable chance that any given piece of art with a heart has been made by Jim Dine. The artist has been prolific in his 60-plus years of producing works, from large-scale Pop-inflected paintings to emotive and lush collaged works-on-paper. Even while working within a childlike vocabulary, Dine has often been considered alongside rougher painters like Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, and has surprised critics and audiences by flexing his muscles as an original generator of performance art "Happenings" or towering series of sculptures.

      Dine never fails to surprise at the auction block. His best at-auction works, stemming from the 1960s, often double their pre-auction estimates. His two highest results were $420,000 in 2007 and $418,000 more recently in 2015.

      View More Works

Property of a Newport Beach, CA Collector

52

Night Fields, Day Fields

incised with the artist's signature, date, number and Walla Walla Foundry mark "JIM DINE ● 1999 4/6 WWF" on the lower edge
waterborne enamel on bronze
78 x 53 x 36 in. (198.1 x 134.6 x 91.4 cm)
Executed in 1999, this work is number 4 from an edition of 6 plus 3 artist's proofs.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$150,000 - 200,000 

Sold for $150,000

Contact Specialist

Avery Semjen
Head of Sale, New Now
212 940 1207
asemjen@phillips.com

New Now

New York Auction 28 September 2022