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Lot Essay
The 1940s are widely regarded as the most successful period of Arthur Dove's career and the time in which he produced his most progressive works. Painted in 1943, A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree exemplifies the bold abstractions of these years. William C. Agee extols Dove's late works such as the present painting writing, "[he] was a better artist at the end than he had been early on, and in his last five years he made his best paintings." ("Arthur Dove: A Place to Find Things," Modern Art in America: Alfred Stieglitz and his New York Galleries, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 435)
After first seeing Dove’s works in 1910, the photographer, gallerist and supreme promoter of modern art in America, Alfred Stieglitz, began exhibiting the visionary artist's work every year at his various galleries until 1946. Stieglitz, who was known to keep his favorite works by the artists that he represented, was especially taken with A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree. "According to Dr. Mary Holt, a previous owner of this work who frequented An American Place, this painting was a favorite of Stieglitz's and hung in his office during the latter years of the gallery." (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., The Eye of Stieglitz, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1978, p. 28)
At the time he painted A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree, Dove was living in a converted post office on the banks of a mill pond in Centerport, Long Island. Due to ill health, he was unable to travel and took inspiration from the flora and fauna around his home, returning to his earlier focus of reducing objects to their elementary forms. In a diary entry from August 5, 1942, Dove stated his goal of painting the "point where abstraction and reality meet." (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution) He masterfully achieves this in A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree. Here he omits extraneous detail, simplifying the blue jay and tree to their most essential forms and colors. The bird is perched in the tree in profile, the white of its chest vertically bisecting the canvas. Dove integrates his signature at the lower center into the composition and it acts as the bird’s feet. The beak is reduced to a black rectangle and its multiple shades of blue feathers ring the lower half of the composition. The staccato dabs of blue of the feathers create the sense of rhythm found in Dove's best works. While the broad planes of color emphasize the flat two-dimensionality of the canvas, the green at the far left edge suggests a hint of depth with a background of green leaves. Dove wrote in the exhibition pamphlet for his 1943 show at Stieglitz’s An American Place, "I would like to make something that is real in itself, that does not remind anyone of any other thing, and that does not have to be explained." (as quoted in Arthur G. Dove: Paintings - 1942-1943, exhibition pamphlet, New York, 1943) In A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree, he masterfully captures the essence of his subject in a style that is wholly his own.
After first seeing Dove’s works in 1910, the photographer, gallerist and supreme promoter of modern art in America, Alfred Stieglitz, began exhibiting the visionary artist's work every year at his various galleries until 1946. Stieglitz, who was known to keep his favorite works by the artists that he represented, was especially taken with A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree. "According to Dr. Mary Holt, a previous owner of this work who frequented An American Place, this painting was a favorite of Stieglitz's and hung in his office during the latter years of the gallery." (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., The Eye of Stieglitz, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1978, p. 28)
At the time he painted A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree, Dove was living in a converted post office on the banks of a mill pond in Centerport, Long Island. Due to ill health, he was unable to travel and took inspiration from the flora and fauna around his home, returning to his earlier focus of reducing objects to their elementary forms. In a diary entry from August 5, 1942, Dove stated his goal of painting the "point where abstraction and reality meet." (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution) He masterfully achieves this in A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree. Here he omits extraneous detail, simplifying the blue jay and tree to their most essential forms and colors. The bird is perched in the tree in profile, the white of its chest vertically bisecting the canvas. Dove integrates his signature at the lower center into the composition and it acts as the bird’s feet. The beak is reduced to a black rectangle and its multiple shades of blue feathers ring the lower half of the composition. The staccato dabs of blue of the feathers create the sense of rhythm found in Dove's best works. While the broad planes of color emphasize the flat two-dimensionality of the canvas, the green at the far left edge suggests a hint of depth with a background of green leaves. Dove wrote in the exhibition pamphlet for his 1943 show at Stieglitz’s An American Place, "I would like to make something that is real in itself, that does not remind anyone of any other thing, and that does not have to be explained." (as quoted in Arthur G. Dove: Paintings - 1942-1943, exhibition pamphlet, New York, 1943) In A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree, he masterfully captures the essence of his subject in a style that is wholly his own.