Jim Dine's main concern has always been to 'paint, what I am'. As early as the beginning of the 1960s, when images of simple household appliances stood for the human existence - with a special reference to the childhood memories of his parents' household supply store - his art was the expression of the awareness of a personal identity. He always conveyed his experiences on a metaphoric and emotional level and not as an anecdotic tale of his life. This is supported by the series of self portraits Dine began in 1964 - the bathrobe paintings - conceived as abstract images of the male self. The motif, that Dine found in a random newspaper clipping, lives on today in the shape of headless bodies. These works are about how the artist forces his 'Ego' on the world and at the same time they generalize this experience.
Provenance available
