Psychological Abstract Portrait of Ted Shawn
Artist
Katherine Dreier
(American, 1877 - 1952)
Date1929
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 32 3/4 x 27 1/2 in. (83.2 x 69.9 cm)
Overall: 30 x 25 in., (76.2 x 63.5 cm,)
Overall: 30 x 25 in., (76.2 x 63.5 cm,)
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Credit LinePurchased in Honor of the Museum's Current and Former Docents
Object number96.29
On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightPresumed copyright: the artist or the artist's representative/heir(s).
Label TextTed Shawn (1891-1972) was a dancer and choreographer who founded Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Western Massachusetts. Shawn believed that "dance communicates man's deepest, highest, and most truly spiritual thoughts and emotions far better than words, spoken or written." Abstract forms and symbolic colors, therefore, were the most appropriate tools for Katherine S. Dreier to capture the dynamism of Shawn's modern dance. She used the large blue circle as the dominant motif and her brushwork and paint around this orb suggest movement.
Mary E. Murray
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
