PIBI Gallery

Jim Dine (b. 1935) is a seminal American artist whose prolific and expansive career spans over six decades, encompassing painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, poetry, and performance.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Dine emerged as a pioneering member of the Happenings movement in New York, alongside artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow. His debut in the art world came in 1959 with The Smiling Worker, a 30-second experimental performance. These early performances instilled a radical new energy in the contemporary art scene, pushing the boundaries of artistic expression.

Although Dine’s work is often associated with art movements such as Neo-Dada, Pop Art, and Neo-Expressionism, his artistic practice is distinguished by its deeply autobiographical nature and rich personal symbolism. Drawing inspiration from childhood memories of his father’s and grandfather’s hardware store, he frequently incorporates tools, brushes, and ties as recurring motifs—sometimes as physical materials within his work. Additionally, personal totems such as hearts, bathrobes, Pinocchio, and palettes appear throughout his varied oeuvre, evolving through different visual interpretations over time. These motifs function not merely as decorative elements but as profound narrative devices, reflecting the artist’s identity and inner world.

Poetry has long at the core of Dine’s artistic practice. Over the past 50 years, he has published more than a dozen poetry collections, and he regularly gives readings and performances of his poems, bridging the realms of poetry and visual art. His poetic language is intricately woven into his broader body of work, imbuing it with emotional depth and lyricism. This approach not only expands the scope of his artistic expression but also plays a crucial role in shaping his unique visual language.

* His work has been presented in solo exhibitions around the world including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1967), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (1967 and 1978), the Palais des Beaux-Arts- Bozar in Brussels, Belgium (1970), La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California, USA (1974), The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (1988), the Setan Museum of Art & Museum of Art Tokyo & Osaka, Japan (1990), the Borås Konstmuseum Sweden, Switzerland (1993), the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Villa, Malibu, California, USA (2008), The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, USA (2009), the Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada (2010), the Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria (2016), the Antiken Museum, Basel, Switzerland (2016), the Accademia di San Luca, Rome, Italy (2017), the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2018), the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia (2018), the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy (2020), and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel (2020)