Hand Sewing Machine is one of twenty-five mixed-media works that Dove created during the 1920s. The machine is painted on a sheet of aluminum, whose dull silver surface remains visible in certain areas. The fabric being stitched is an actual piece of linen. A hand-operated sewing machine such as this one would have already been considered old-fashioned by the 1920s. However, Dove and his wife owned one and used it in their daily lives.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Hand Sewing Machine
Artist:Arthur Dove (American, Canandaigua, New York 1880–1946 Huntington, New York)
Date:1927
Medium:Oil, cut and pasted linen, resin, and graphite on sheet metal, with artist-made frame
Dimensions:14 7/8 × 19 3/4 in. (37.8 × 50.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
Accession Number:49.92.2
the artist (from 1927); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (probably 1928–d. 1946) and/or Georgia O'Keeffe, New York (probably 1928–June 1949; in exchange for return of "evolutionary" material by other artists, her gift as part of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection to MMA)
Intimate Gallery, New York. "Arthur G. Dove, Paintings," December 12, 1927–January 11, 1928, no catalogue (checklist no. 9).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alfred Stieglitz: His Photographs and His Collection," February 2–29, 1948, no catalogue (checklist no. 47.191).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum," June 16–October 29, 1950, unnum. brochure (p. 5).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Arthur G. Dove," September 30–November 16, 1958, no. 20.
Washington, D. C. Phillips Memorial Art Gallery. "Arthur G. Dove," November 30, 1958–January 5, 1959, no. 20.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Arthur G. Dove," January 25–February 28, 1959, no. 20.
San Antonio. Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute. "Arthur G. Dove," March 18–April 18, 1959, no. 20.
Art Galleries of the University of California, Los Angeles. "Arthur G. Dove," May 1–June 15, 1959, no. 20.
La Jolla Art Center. "Arthur G. Dove," June 20–July 30, 1959, no. 20.
San Francisco Museum of Art. "Arthur G. Dove," August 15–September 30, 1959, no. 20.
Washington, D. C. Corcoran Gallery of Art. "The New Tradition: Modern Americans Before 1940," April 27–June 2, 1963, no. 36.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist.
College Park. University of Maryland Art Gallery, J. Millard Tawes Fine Arts Center. "Arthur Dove: The Years of Collage," March 13–April 19, 1967, no. 20.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age," November 25, 1968–February 9, 1969, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum's Collections," October 1–December 7, 1969, no catalogue.
San Francisco Museum of Art. "Arthur Dove," November 21, 1974–January 5, 1975, unnumbered cat. (p. 51).
Buffalo. Albright-Knox Art Gallery. "Arthur Dove," January 27–March 2, 1975, unnumbered cat.
St. Louis Art Museum. "Arthur Dove," April 3–May 25, 1975, unnumbered cat.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Arthur Dove," July 12–August 31, 1975, unnumbered cat.
Des Moines Art Center. "Arthur Dove," September 22–November 2, 1975, unnumbered cat.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Arthur Dove," November 24, 1975–January 18, 1976, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arthur Dove: Nature Abstracted," April 16, 1991–April 6, 1992, no catalogue (as "Sewing Machine").
Berlin. Martin-Gropius-Bau. "Amerikanische Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert: Malerei und Plastik; 1913–1993," May 8–July 25, 1993, no. 33.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993," September 16–December 12, 1993, no. 33.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Still Life: 1915–1950," February 1, 1995–January 28, 1996, no catalogue.
Washington, D. C. Phillips Collection. "Arthur Dove: A Retrospective," September 20, 1997–January 4, 1998, no. 38.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Arthur Dove: A Retrospective," January 15–April 12, 1998, no. 38.
Andover, Mass. Addison Gallery of American Art. "Arthur Dove: A Retrospective," April 25–July 12, 1998, no. 38.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Arthur Dove: A Retrospective," August 2–October 4, 1998, no. 38.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 68.
Robert Beverly Hale. 100 American Painters of the 20th Century: Works Selected from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1950, ill. p. 43.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, p. 56, ill.
George Heard Hamilton. "The Alfred Stieglitz Collection." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), p. 388, fig. 20.
Nora B. Beeson. Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1972, pp. 278–79, fig. 7.
Dickran Tashjian. Skyscraper Primitives: Dada and the American Avant-Garde, 1910–1925. Middletown, Conn., 1975, pp. 200–202, ill. between pp. 164 and 165.
Ann Lee Morgan. Arthur Dove: Life and Work, with a Catalogue Raisonné. Newark, Del., 1984, p. 154, no. 27.4.
Judith Zilczer. "Synaesthesia and Popular Culture: Arthur Dove, George Gershwin, and the 'Rhapsody in Blue'." Art Journal 44 (Winter 1984), p. 366 n. 17.
William C. Agee. "Book Review of 'Arthur Dove: Life and Work, with a Catalogue Raisonné,' by Ann Lee Morgan." Archives of American Art Journal 24 (1984), p. 20.
Richard Guy Wilson inThe Machine Age in America, 1918–1941. Exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum. New York, 1986, pp. 237–38, fig. 7.37.
Marc Chénetier et al. Américônes: Études sur l'image aux États-Unis. Fontenay-aux-Roses, 1997, p. 22.
Melanie Kirschner. Arthur Dove: Watercolors and Pastels. New York, 1998, p. 60.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, fig. 18 (installation photo of Exh. New York 1985).
Jessica Murphy inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 107, 112, 259, no. 68, ill. (color).
Rachel Mustalish inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 112, 114.
Arthur Dove (American, Canandaigua, New York 1880–1946 Huntington, New York)
1930
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