GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In Still Life with Striped Gourd, Otis Dozier paints a vibrant assemblage of freshly harvested gourds spilling over a tabletop in a country home. Like many of his Dallas Nine contemporaries active in the early years of the Great Depression, food, or the lack thereof, often served as potent subject matter for the regionalist painter.
The distinctive rounded features and animated pattern of each gourd or squash, paired with its individual striped design, results in a dynamic still life that is far from ordinary. The angularities of the window, wooden tabletop, and checkered, tiled floor accentuate the rounded, curvilinear forms of the tabletop display. By situating this bulbous bounty in the foreground, Dozier revisits a much practiced compositional structure visible in his two other works painted during the same period, Cotton Boll (1985.126) and Maize and Windmill (2007.15.20). In those paintings, the artist renders the harvest flora as if the isolated still life is a scientific illustration—filled with minute detail and imbued with a strong sense of physical realism. Here, Dozier divorces his colorful interior still life from the neighboring farmhouses and barren fields visible through the window, and instead composes an active scene suggesting a successful harvest.
Adapted from
Erin Pinon, Label text, 2016.
NOTES
This note was originally created and submitted by Erin Pinon, summer 2016. I am removing the #draft tag and requesting that the content be pulled from Brain and the Google Docs routing process so that I can review formatting, tagging, and text. After review, the note will be retagged with #draft and proceed to be harvested, routed, and revised as usual. (EAS, 8/26/2016)
Removed second line of rule (Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 1375) because it seems inappropriate for this content to be connected to all objects made by Dozeier? (EAS, 12/30/2020)
Created in 1935
1/12
Added provenance.
Exhibition: Lone Star Regionalism :The Dallas Nine and their Circle 1928-1945, February 3, 1985-July 10, 1988
Related Objects
1985.126 Otis Dozier, Cotton Boll
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: Texas (state/United States): TGN: 7007826
Place of origin: Southwest (general region/United States): TGN: 4010660
Process/materials
Oil on Masonite
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
Before 1935: Otis Dozier [1]
From 1935: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, A. Harris and Company Purchase Prize, Seventh Annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition, purchased from the artist. [2]
[1] The main source for this provenance was existing information in TMS (in Dallas Museum of Art Digital Collections Records Object Files). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Dozier, Otis, Texas State Historical Association Biography~Read more about Otis Dozier on the Handbook of Texas Online (published by the Texas State Historical Association).
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- Still Life with Striped Gourd was well received by critics and patrons alike, winning a Purchase Prize at the Seventh Annual Allied Arts Exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art (then known as the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts) in 1935, and praised a year later at its inclusion in the Texas Centennial Exposition and Art Exhibition (1936).
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1935.3
Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
In Still Life with Striped Gourd, Otis Dozier paints a vibrant assemblage of freshly harvested gourds spilling over a tabletop in a country home. Like many of his Dallas Nine contemporaries active in the early years of the Great Depression, food, or the lack thereof, often served as potent subject matter for the regionalist painter.
The distinctive rounded features and animated pattern of each gourd or squash, paired with its individual striped design, results in a dynamic still life that is far from ordinary. The angularities of the window, wooden tabletop, and checkered, tiled floor accentuate the rounded, curvilinear forms of the tabletop display. By situating this bulbous bounty in the foreground, Dozier revisits a much practiced compositional structure visible in his two other works painted during the same period, Cotton Boll (1985.126) and Maize and Windmill (2007.15.20). In those paintings, the artist renders the harvest flora as if the isolated still life is a scientific illustration—filled with minute detail and imbued with a strong sense of physical realism. Here, Dozier divorces his colorful interior still life from the neighboring farmhouses and barren fields visible through the window, and instead composes an active scene suggesting a successful harvest.
Adapted from
Erin Pinon, Label text, 2016.
Fun Facts
- Still Life with Striped Gourd was well received by critics and patrons alike, winning a Purchase Prize at the Seventh Annual Allied Arts Exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art (then known as the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts) in 1935, and praised a year later at its inclusion in the Texas Centennial Exposition and Art Exhibition (1936).
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Dozier, Otis, Texas State Historical Association Biography~Read more about Otis Dozier on the Handbook of Texas Online (published by the Texas State Historical Association).
Notes
This note was originally created and submitted by Erin Pinon, summer 2016. I am removing the #draft tag and requesting that the content be pulled from Brain and the Google Docs routing process so that I can review formatting, tagging, and text. After review, the note will be retagged with #draft and proceed to be harvested, routed, and revised as usual. (EAS, 8/26/2016)
Removed second line of rule (Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 1375) because it seems inappropriate for this content to be connected to all objects made by Dozeier? (EAS, 12/30/2020)
Created in 1935
1/12
Added provenance.
Exhibition: Lone Star Regionalism :The Dallas Nine and their Circle 1928-1945, February 3, 1985-July 10, 1988
Related Objects
1985.126 Otis Dozier, Cotton Boll
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: Texas (state/United States): TGN: 7007826
Place of origin: Southwest (general region/United States): TGN: 4010660
Process/materials
Oil on Masonite
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
Before 1935: Otis Dozier [1]
From 1935: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, A. Harris and Company Purchase Prize, Seventh Annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition, purchased from the artist. [2]
[1] The main source for this provenance was existing information in TMS (in Dallas Museum of Art Digital Collections Records Object Files). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1935.3
source file
object_notes_1_a-0006.xml.nores