Telegraph Pole

1929

Arthur Dove (American, 1880–1946)

“Being a wet telegraph pole, some flying leaves and silver.” This is how Arthur Dove briefly described this painting, which juxtaposes the geometry of the pole in the extreme foreground against the curves of distant hills. Dove evoked the wetness of the scene by employing metallic paint on a steel plate; these unconventional materials makes the entire composition shimmer and shine. The varied brushwork and pulsating layers of color in the background further enliven the work’s appearance, suggesting that this industrial object has been subsumed into its natural setting.

Status: On View, Gallery 265
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Arthur Dove
Title: Telegraph Pole
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1929
Medium: Oil, metallic paint, and pencil on steel plate
Inscriptions: Signed recto, bottom-right corner, on brown ground, in white paint: "Dove".
Dimensions: 71.1 × 50.5 cm (28 × 19 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Reference Number: 1949.535

Frederick Wight, “Arthur G. Dove,” (Berkeley, 1958), 59.
Sherrye Cohn, “Arthur Dove and Theosophy: Visions of a Transcendental Reality,” Arts Magazine 58, 1 (Sept. 1983), 86–91 (ill.).
Ann Lee Morgan, “Arthur Dove: Life and Work with Catalogue Raisonne” (Associated University Press, 1984).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 77. 64.

Washington DC, Phillips Memorial Gallery, Retrospective Exhibition of Works in Various Media by Arthur G. Dove, Mar. 23–Apr. 18, 1937.
New York, An American Place, Arthur G. Dove: Exhibition of Oils and Temperas, Apr. 10–May 17, 1939.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, History of An American: Alfred Stieglitz: 291 and After, 1944.
Museum of Modern Art, Alfred Stieglitz: His Collection, June 10–Aug. 31, 1947, cat. 29.
Whitney Museum of American Art, Arthur G. Dove, Oct. 1–Nov. 16, 1958.
Washington DC, Phillips Collection, Arthur Dove: A Retrospective, Sept. 20, 1997–Jan. 4, 1998; Whitney Museum of American Art, Jan. 15–Apr. 12, 1998; Addison Gallery of American Art, Apr. 25–July 12, 1998; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Aug. 2–Oct. 4, 1998.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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