biography of Edwin Walter DICKINSON (1891-1978)

Birth place: Seneca Falls, NY

Death place: Wellfleet, MA

Addresses: NYC; Wellfleet, MA

Profession: Painter, teacher

Studied: Pratt Inst Art School, 1910-1911; NAD; Art Student League New York, 1911-1912; Art Sch of the Buffalo Fine Arts Acad., 1912-13; William M. Chase; C. W. Hawthorne in Provincetown

Exhibited: Corcoran Gal, 1916, 1928-57; PAFA, 1917-22, 1929-31, 1944-49, 1960, 1964, 1966 (solo); SIA, 1917; McDowell Cl., NYC, 1917 (solo), 1982 (solo); NAD, 1918, 1949 (prize), 1982, 1989-92; Luxembourg Mus., Paris, 1919; AIC, 1920; Carnegie Inst., 1921; Jeu de Pomme, Paris, 1938; Albright AG, Buffalo, 1927 (solo), 1987; Passedoit Gal, NYC, 1936-42 (7 solo); Rochester Mem. AG, 1939 (solo); Provincetown AA, 1948 (solo), 1967 (solo), 1976 (solo), 1989; MMA, 1950-51; Cushman Gal., Houston, TX, 1958 (solo); Boston Univ., 1959 (retrospective); Graham Gal., NYC, 1961 (solo), 1986 (solo); MOMA, 1938, 1943, 1952, 1954, traveling retrospective to 12 museums, 1961-63, 1976; WMAA, 1965 (major retrospective), 1966; NY World's Fair, 1964; Brooklyn Museum; BMFA; Venice Biennale, 1968; Inst. Contemp. Art, Boston, 1970 (solo); SUNY Buffalo, 1977 (solo); AAAL, 1979 (memorial exh.); Hirschorn Mus., 1980 (solo); Rutgers Univ. AG, 1982; Parrish AM, 1983; Munson-Wms.-Proctor Inst., 1984; Hirschl & Adler Gal., NYC, 1983, 1986 (solo); Pinacoteca Amrosiana, Florence, 1987-88; M.H. DeYoung Mem. Mus., 1989; RISD, 1989; Babcock Gal., NYC, 1991 (solo); plus others. Awards: Natl Inst of Arts and Letters Grant, 1954; Medal for Art, Century Assoc., 1956; Creative arts medal, Brandeis Univ., 1959; Ford Found grant, 1959; Brevoort-Eickenmeyer Prize, Columbia Univ., 1965.

Member: Fedn. Modern Painters & Sculptors; Nat. Acad. Design; Patteran Soc., Buffalo; Am. Academy of Arts & Letters; Nat. Inst. Arts & Letters; plus others.

Work: NMAA; MMA; WMAA; AIC; PAFA; BMFA; NAD; PMA; VMFA; AAAL; CAM; TMA; SFMA; Atlanta Univ; Baltimore MA; Boston Univ.; Bowdoin Coll. MA; Brooklyn Mus.; SUNY Buffalo; Chrysler Mus., Norfolk, VA; Corcoran Gal.; El Paso MA; Hamilton Coll, Clinton, NY; Cornell Univ.; Hirshhorn Mus.; Isreal Mus., Jerusalem; Kresge AM; Witte Mem. Mus.; Houston Mus. FA; Pasadena AI; Los Angeles Mus. of Art; Portland Mus. of Art; Albright Art Gal.; Rochester Mem. Art Gal.; Minnesota MA; Montclair Mus.; Springfield Mus. of FA; Metropolitan Mus. of Art; Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Penn State Univ.; Provincetown AA; UMass Amherst; Univ. So. Ill.; Univ. Nebrsaka; Wheaton Coll, MA; UNC Greensboro, NC; Farnsworth AM, Rockland, ME, plus others.

Comments: One of the early Provincetown modernists (1912-on), his style was unique, combining abstraction and symbolism. After serving in the Navy (1917-19) he lived and worked in France and 1919-1920, and visited Spain. He returned to Provincetown but also taught at the ASL. He returned to France, 1937-38, living in Brittany and southern France. In 1938-39 he lived in Buffalo before moving to Wellfleet, MA. Teaching: lecturer, Hartford, Boston & Columbia Univs; instructor, Art Sch. of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1916; instructor, Art Students League, 1922-23 & 1945-65; instructor, Cooper Union Art School, 1945-50; instructor, Brooklyn Mus., 1949-53.

Sources: WW47; WW73; Werner Haftman (included in): Painting in the Twentieth Century (Praeger, 1960); Lloyd Goodrich, The Drawings of Edwin Dickinson (Yale Univ. Press, 1963) and exh. cat.; Edwin Dickinson WMAA, 1965; exh. cat. (Babcock Gal., NYC, 1990); Krane, The Wayward Muse, 188; Provincetown Painters, 145; Falk, Exh. Record Series.