Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, Toronto

Note:

American Realism is perhaps not a genre most associated with the American artist Jim Dine. His career, spanning nearly six decades, is anchored in his depiction of everyday objects and Calico, 1965 is the perfect representation of Dine’s inspiration of choice. Unlike Duchamp, Dine’s subjects (hammers, saws and screwdrivers) are deeply rooted in realism: growing up with plumbers, tools were the very fabric of daily life and became Dine’s most appealing subjects.

As the artist describes: “I feel the mystery of tools, the romance of tools not having been designed, but evolved through the use of people’s hands. A screwdriver isn’t always a screwdriver, you know.” Dine’s screwdriver is the main attraction in Calico, piercing through a white block of colour. Hardly idealized, Dine’s scene appears to be more collage-like in nature with rips and unrefined edges highlighting the imperfections of such materials.

Chaotic also expresses a surface flatness, a common element Dine shares with his American contemporaries, including Roy Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly, Tom Wesselman and Jasper Johns. In this instance, the print appears one-dimensional, paying homage to graphic design traits embodied by the charming, small black and white cut-outs at the very top.