88.2 x 72.4 cm
A darker shade of heart from Jim Dine, who frequently uses the symbol in his work, at times in reference to his ex-wife, Nancy. Though he first began using heart shapes in 1970, he stopped in '71 and did not use them again until 1981. He explains that he had first visited the theme when he was deeply concerned for a friend who was dealing with mental illness, and had decided to depict the "studio of the soul".
Dine was born June 16, 1935, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He took evening classes at the Cincinnati Art Academy during his senior year of high school and then attended the University of Cincinnati, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Ohio University, Athens, from which he received his B.F.A. in 1957. Dine moved to New York in 1959 and soon became a pioneer creator of “Happenings”, together with Allan Kaprow and Robert Whitman. He exhibited at the Judson Gallery, New York, in 1958 and 1959. His first solo show took place at the Reuben Gallery, New York, in 1960.
Dine is closely associated with the development of Pop art in the early 1960s. He frequently affixed everyday objects, such as tools, rope, shoes, neckties, other articles of clothing and even a bathroom sink, to his canvases. Characteristically these objects were Dine’s personal possessions. This autobiographical content was evident in Dine’s early Crash series of 1959–60 and also appeared in subsequent, recurrent themes and images, such as the Palettes, Hearts, and bathrobe self-portraits. Dine has made a number of three-dimensional works and installations, and is well-known for his drawings and prints. He has also written and illustrated several books of poetry.
In 1965, Dine was a guest lecturer at Yale University, New Haven, and artist-in-residence at Oberlin College, Ohio. He was a visiting artist at Cornell University, New York, in 1967. From 1967 to 1971, he and his family lived in London. Dine has been given solo shows in museums in Europe and the United States. In 1970, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, organized a major retrospective of his work, and in 1978 the Museum of Modern Art, New York, presented a retrospective of his etchings. Dine lives between New York and Putney, Vermont.