Red Robe with Hatchet (Self-Portrait) (Primary Title)
Jim Dine, American, born 1935 (Artist)
“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.
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
Jim Dine @ VMFA
2:32Hear 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.
Jim Dine @ VMFA
2:32Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.