27 Facts About Dorothy Dehner

Dorothy Dehner was born on December 23,1901, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dorothy Dehner's father was a pharmacist and her mother was a passionate suffragette.

When Dehner was ten years old, her father died and her two aunts, Flo and Cora, moved in.

In 1915, as a result of her mother's declining health, the family of four moved to Pasadena, California, where Dorothy Dehner actively studied theater at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Dorothy Dehner experienced heavy emotional loss over the next two years in which both her sister and mother died.

Dorothy Dehner was, to an extent, dictated by director, script, and venue.

Dorothy Dehner traveled alone as not to be hindered by any travel companions.

Dorothy Dehner's first stop was Florence, Italy, where she absorbed much of Italy's historic architecture.

Dorothy Dehner was particularly taken with works by Picasso and committed herself to drawing throughout her year of travel.

Smith and Dorothy Dehner bought a farm in Bolton Landing in upstate New York in 1929 and spent much of their married life there.

However, as a result of some family land holdings, Dorothy Dehner received an annual check for $2,000, which helped support them financially and allowed Smith to focus on his art.

Dorothy Dehner entrenched herself in the culture and traditional sculpture of Greece.

Dorothy Dehner was constrained in her artwork both by the stress of farm life and by the often aggressive mood swings of Smith.

One outburst on Smith's part caused Dorothy Dehner to flee Bolton Landing in 1945.

Dorothy Dehner rejected the increased abstraction Smith advocated, as evidenced in her Life on the Farm series of drawings.

In 1948, Dorothy Dehner held a solo exhibition at Skidmore College which was well received.

Dorothy Dehner had suggested a collaborative work but Smith refused and later denied his sculpture had any connection to Dorothy Dehner's watercolor.

Dorothy Dehner embraced other forms of personal expression and possessed a gift for writing.

Dorothy Dehner made intaglio prints at Atelier 17 from 1952, and that same year, had her first solo exhibit at the Rose Fried Gallery.

Dorothy Dehner continued at Atelier 17 until it moved to Paris in 1955, then worked at Pratt Graphics Center until 1960.

Dorothy Dehner was a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists.

Dorothy Dehner chose to construct her works from varying parts, a distinctly Constructivist quality.

Dorothy Dehner's sculptures emphasized line and plane over volume and exhibited an assembled as opposed to modeled quality.

Dorothy Dehner began experimenting with wood sculpture in 1974, following the death of her second husband.

Much of Smith's sculpture employed welding as a construction technique, which Dorothy Dehner did not embrace.

Dorothy Dehner received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1983 from the Women's Caucus for Art.

In 1988 Dorothy Dehner had solo exhibitions featuring her large welded pieces at Twining Fine Art, New York, and at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania.