Two Forms

Artist Arthur Dove (1880 - 1946)

Date1931

MediumOil on fiberboard

Dimensions33 3/8 × 24 1/2 in. (84.8 × 62.2 cm)
Framed: 40 in. × 31 1/8 in. × 1 3/4 in.

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2007.14

Signedl.l., in gray paint: Dove

Accession number 2007.14

On View

Not on view

Provenance(An American Place, New York, NY); (Downtown Gallery, New York, NY); (Terry Dintenfass, Inc., New York, NY); Selig S. Burrows [d. 1997] and Gladys Burrows, Mill Neck, NY, 1971; by descent to Private Collection, New York, NY, 1998; (Alexandre Fine Art, New York, NY); Private Collection, New York, NY, 2001; (Alexandre Fine Art, New York, NY); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2007
Label TextArthur Dove based his abstract paintings in observations of the natural world. In Two Forms, he used a limited color palette to convey the presence and absence of light. The edges of central shapes glow with lighter colors, emphasizing the powerful energies within nature. Dove’s partner Helen Torr described this image in a journal the two shared: “A radiant central shape with two roof-like projections at its peak partially obscures a dark, elliptical mass resembling a sun in eclipse.”

Arthur Dove basó sus pinturas abstractas en observaciones del mundo natural. En Dos formas, utilizó una limitada paleta de colores para transmitir la presencia y la ausencia de luz. Los bordes de las formas centrales brillan con colores más claros, enfatizando las poderosas energías de la naturaleza. Helen Torr, compañera de Dove, describió esta imagen en un diario que ambos compartían: “Una forma central resplandeciente con dos protuberancias en forma de tejado en la cima oculta parcialmente una masa oscura y elíptica que se asemeja a un sol en eclipse.”