Jim Dine is an American Pop Artist born on June 16th, 1935 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dine studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and at Ohio University where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1957. Later on in 1958 Dine moved to New York and began working with other artists such as Allan Kaprow, Robert Whitman, and Claes Oldenburg to create performance art that they called “Happenings”. He has been a guest lecturer at Yale University and was an artist-in-residence at Cornell University. His first solo exhibit was at the Ruben Gallery, New York, in 1960.
Dine’s work includes painting, sculpture, poetry, and photography. Common motifs in his pieces are hearts, Pinocchio, bathrobes, and tools. Common themes of his works are personal identity, memory, and the body. His work uses bright colours and many scratchy, textural qualities. It is interesting to me that Dine seems to be able to take one subject and create so many variations of the piece. I like some of his more graphic works, but I find the constant use of hearts and bathrobes to be too repetitive for my tastes. I think the process of making his pieces is more interesting than the end result. I do like his sculptures though.
