Modern Art & Design presents Jim Dine

Jim Dine, "Four Robes Existing in this Vale of Tears"

Bukowskis presents the work "Four Robes Existing in this Vale of Tears" by Jim Dine at the upcoming auction Modern Art & Design – the leading auction for modern art and design in the Nordics.

The polyptych "Four Robes Existing in this Vale of Tears" deals with one of Jim Dine's most iconic motifs—the bathrobe. Bathrobes have been a central theme throughout his artistic career and recur in many of his diverse techniques. Dine began painting bathrobes as early as the 1960s. Despite claiming that he has never personally worn a bathrobe, they quickly took on the form of self-portraits. In an interview in ARTnews, September 1977, Dine described his relationship with the magical bathrobe: “The robes have become much more mysterious than they used to be, and that’s because I understand them more. Obviously, there’s some hidden significance there. But what’s funny is that I don’t own a bathrobe. I don’t wear one. I don’t walk around in one. I never see bathrobes around me, nor do I see people wearing them. I don’t have a bathrobe to paint from. What I use is what I’ve used from the very beginning - a newspaper ad which I clipped out of The New York Times back in 1963. The ad shows a robe with the man airbrushed out of it. Well, it somehow looked like me, and I thought I’d make that a symbol for me. Actually, it all began when I wanted to paint a self-portrait . . . and just couldn’t. It’s important for me to say this, because what I really wanted to do was sit in front of a mirror and paint a portrait of myself. But at the time, I was in analysis and the pressures I felt prevented me from going through with it.”

Jim Dine has been represented by Pace Gallery New York since 1976, and it was there that he first exhibited a series of large paintings with bathrobe motifs. The polyptych "Four Robes Existing in this Vale of Tears" was created in 1976, an important period for the artist. In 1978, he had a retrospective solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. More exhibitions followed, and to date, he has exhibited over 300 times at institutions and galleries around the world.

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