Red Robe with Hatchet (Self-Portrait) (Primary Title)

Jim Dine, American, born 1935 (Artist)

Educational
1964
American
oil on canvas, metal, wood, hatchet
United States
Overall: 87 × 60 in. (220.98 × 152.4 cm)
85.381a-c

“The ad shows a robe with the man airbrushed out of it. There was nobody in the bathrobe, but when I saw it, it looked like me.” —Jim Dine

In the early 1960s, Dine’s paint-filled canvases with attached clothing, tools, and other store-bought items brought him critical acclaim as a Pop artist, an identity he never accepted. Although his imagery makes reference to popular culture, Dine drew inspiration from his own personal history and from art history. He cited the European tradition, from Dad and Surrealism back to classical antiquity, as his source.

In 1964, inspired by an advertisement in the New York Times Magazine, Dine began using the image of an empty bathrobe as a form of self-portraiture. In this early version, Dine’s colorful, precisely painted image of the robe stands behind a hatchet embedded in a log, linking not only Dine’s bathrobe and tools series but also painting and sculpture.

Gift of Sydney and Frances Lewis
Jim Dine: Walking Memories, 1959-1969, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, February 11 – May 11, 1999; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH, October 22, 1999 – January 9, 2000

Jim Dine: Five Themes, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, February 15 – April 14, 1984; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, May 13 – June 24, 1984; The Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, July 22 - Sept 3, 1984; Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH, September 22 – November 11, 1984; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, December 7, 1984 – January 20, 1985; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, February 20 – April 28, 1985

Contemporary American Paintings from the Lewis Collection, Delaware Museum of Art, Wilmington, DE, September 13 – October 27, 1974

American Pop Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, April 6 – June 16, 1974

Dine/Kitaj Exhibition, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH, April – May 1973

Jim Dine Retrospective, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 1969
Lancioni, D. Jim Dine. Palazzo Delle Esposizioni Roma. Macerata: Quodlibet, 2020. (illus., p. 108)

160th JFS Annual Report and 2010 Calendar. Richmond: Jewish Family Services, 2009.

Ravenal, John B. Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007. (Pp. 36-37).

Gilmour, Laura E., compiler. Sydney and Frances Lewis: A Guide to the Papers. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 2002. (P. 29).

“Jim Dine: Walking Memory, 1959-1969.” Canvas: The Cincinnati Art Museum Bulletin (September/October 1999). (P. 3).

Frankel, Stephen Robert, ed. Jim Dine: Walking Memory, 1959-1969. New York: The Guggenheim Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1999. Exhibition catalogue. (P. 18; 22; No. 128, p. 198; No. 129, p. 199, Front and back covers).

Glueck, Grace. “Zaniness and Pathos in the Portrait of an Antihero.” The New York Times, February 12, 1999. (P. B38).

Livingstone, Marco. Jim Dine: The Alchemy of Images. New York: The Monacelli Press, 1998. (Pp. 190-191).

Brandt, Frederick R. Late 20th Century Art. Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1985. (No. 25, p. 54-55).

Herr, Marcianne. “Jim Dine: Five Themes.” Dialogue 7, no. 5 (September/October 1984). (P. 50).

Beal, Graham W. J. Jim Dine: Five Themes. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1984. (P. 73).

Selz, Peter. Art in Our Times: A Pictorial History, 1890-1980. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1981. (No. 1279, p. 465).

Mellow, James R. Jim Dine. New York: Pace Gallery, 1980. (Np).

Wyrick. Contemporary American Paintings from the Lewis Collection. Delaware: Delaware Art Museum, 1974. Exhibition catalogue. (P. 8).

Alloway, Lawrence. American Pop Art. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974. (No. 38, p. 44).

Namuth, Hans. Fifty-two Artists Photographs by Hans Namuth. New York: Committee for the Visual Arts, Inc., 1973. (Np).

Important Post War and Contemporary Art. Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, Oct. 26, 1972. Sale catalogue. (No. 40).

Gordon, John. Jim Dine Retrospective. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1969. Exhibition catalogue. (No. 66).

©artist or artist’s estate

Jim Dine @ VMFA
2:32

Hear and see what major artists have to say about their works and concepts in their own words. These concise videos–2 to 3 minutes–are historic interviews recorded one-on-one by VMFA in the 1990s and early 2000s.

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