Arthur G. Dove: Illustrations and Abstractions: 1903-1933

Arthur G. Dove, America’s first abstract artist, created close to one thousand wholly figural illustrations for books and magazines between 1903 and 1930. Despite their publication in periodicals such as Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post, and Life, alongside the work of fellow artists John Sloan and William Glackens, they have remained a little studied aspect of his work. This dissertation compiles these illustrations, and examines them closely to make visible the multiple thematic, technical, and conceptual continuities and interactions between Dove’s illustrating and his abstractions and assemblages. Re-integrating Dove’s illustrations into his total body of work reveals illustration’s on-going position as a creative laboratory within Dove’s artistic process, and the instrumental role of illustrating in allowing Dove to make the leap into abstraction.