Jim Dine Dog on the Forge La Biennale di Venezia

AMERICAN ARTIST JIM DINE SHOWS NEW WORK IN A COLLATERAL EVENT OF THE 60TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION – LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA AT THE PALAZZO ROCCA.  A MAJOR EXHIBITION OF 20 BRONZE SCULPTURES, 7 PAINTINGS AND 5 DRAWINGS MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR VENICE.

JIM DINE

DOG ON THE FORGE

20 April — 21 July 2024

La Biennale di Venezia

Organizing Institution: Kunsthaus Göttingen, Germany

Supported by TEMPLON

On the occasion of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia this April, American painter, sculptor and poet Jim Dine transforms the Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfù with an ambitious survey exhibition curated by Gerhard Steidl, Founding Director of the Kunsthaus Göttingen. Jim Dine - Dog on the Forge is a Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. Jim Dine’s show opened to the public on Saturday, 20 April 2024 and runs through 21 July 2024.

Jim Dine - Dog on the Forge presents 32 new works from the artist. Paintings, drawings, bronze and wood sculptures, as well as an impressive outdoor installation of large-scale bronze sculptures. The exhibition debuts monumental and site-specific works conceived specifically for the Biennale Arte 2024. Never-before-exhibited paintings and sculptures will be arranged in dialogue with each other and with artworks spanning from the ‘80s through today. Curator Gerhard Steidl drew inspiration from Dine’s relentless odysseys between the United States and Europe, as well as his lifetime dedication to the concept of visual, cultural, and linguistic hybridization. “My whole life, I’ve been in motion. I find it difficult to sit still. It's a hyperactive quality, I would say. I’ve always enjoyed going from studio to studio, country to country. For me, traveling is like using red. It’s another thing to make the picture.”

Installed in a 14th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal, here the ancient meets contemporary in a palatial, Venetian context, casting a reflective light on Jim Dine’s personal history and perspective. Reinterpreting his now classical language of tools, hearts, self-portraits, Venuses and Pinocchios (which have a dedicated room in the exhibition), the show takes over the two floors of the palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal as well as its 18th-century sculpture garden. When asked about the new paintings, Dine remarks, “I’m not interested in making them pretty. I’m interested in carving out images that will move you.” Conceived as a poetic journey, the exhibition outlines the complexity of an intimate oeuvre deeply rooted in his knowledge of European art history, and a relentless exploration of language and self.

The corresponding catalogue, Dog on the Forge, is published by Editions Steidl with text by Gerhard Steidl. This exhibition is organized by the Kunsthaus Göttingen and supported by TEMPLON.

Jim Dine, Cry, the Poem, 2023, acrylic on painted polymer resin with copper tubes, 78 3/4 x 78 3/4 x 39 1/4 in, 200 x 200 x 100 cm, accompanied by an audio recording of Jim Dine reading the poems on the vase.

ABOUT JIM DINE

Portrait of Jim Dine seated in his studio

Born in 1935, Jim Dine grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and started his career in the late 1950s in New York with a series of happenings that attracted great attention. In the 1960s, he exhibited his assemblages and first paintings alongside the new generation of pop artists, from Claus Oldenburg to Tom Wesselmann.

Jim Dine has spent the last 60 years traveling the world, sharing his time between various foundries, studios and print workshops, from Göttingen, Germany to New York and Walla-Walla in the U.S. to Saint Gallen, Switzerland. Over the last 50 years, poetry has been at the core of his practice, and he regularly gives readings and performances of his poems.

Jim Dine’s work is featured in over 70 public collections across the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, MoMA, Guggenheim, Albertina Museum in Vienna, Folkwang Museum in Essen, Centre Pompidou, Paris, The British Museum and Tate Britain in London.

His work has been presented in solo exhibitions around the world including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1967), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (1967 and 1978), the Palais des Beaux-Arts - Bozar in Brussels, Belgium (1970), La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California, USA (1974), The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (1988), the Setan Museum of Art & Museum of Art Tokyo & Osaka, Japan (1990), the Borås Konstmuseum Sweden, Switzerland (1993), the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Villa, Malibu, California, USA (2008), The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, USA (2009), the Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada (2010), the Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria (2016), the Antiken Museum, Basel, Switzerland (2016), the Accademia di San Luca, Rome, Italy (2017), the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2018), the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia (2018), the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy (2020), and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel (2020).

In 2023, Jim Dine inaugurated The Stardust House in Göttingen, Germany, a pavilion dedicated to the sculpture, Thru the stardust, the heat on the lawn. This exhibition was followed in June by the exhibition Storm of Memory at the Kunsthaus Göttingen, debuting new sculptures, drawings, prints and books. That same year, Dine also participated in the exhibition, Paravents at the Prada Foundation, as he inaugurated an exhibition of 74 portrait drawings donated to Bowdoin College, Maine, USA.

ABOUT GERHARD STEIDL

Gerhard Steidl is a German printer and publisher. He was born in 1950 in Göttingen, Germany. Steidl developed an interest in the technical aspects of printing from an early age and his impetus for a career in printing came when, as a teenager, one of his photographs was used in a poster advertising a production of Brecht's Mann ist Mann.

In the late 1960s, Steidl established Steidl Verlag in Göttingen. Gerhard Steidl, together with Klaus Staeck worked very closely with Joseph Beuys until his death in 1986. At this point Steidl began to concentrate on publishing photography books. In 1993 he won the Lucky Strike award. He published Karl Lagerfeld and began a 26 yearlong collaboration. In 1998 Steidl met Jim Dine in Paris and since have collaborated on over 30 book projects, ranging from conceptual books like, The Goofy Life of Constant Mourning & Viral Interest, to his latest catalog raisonné of prints, I Print 2000-2020, and recently, Three Ships, which accompanied his exhibition by the same name last September at TEMPLON New York.

The relationship between Gerhard Steidl and Jim Dine has also given birth to dedicated pavilions in Göttingen, Germany; House of Words and Stardust House. These two monumental groups of sculpture combine the many facets of Dine’s oeuvre and Steidl’s acute sense of architecture and scenography, bringing together poetry and large-scale ceramic pots with bronze appliqué. In 2020, Gerhard Steidl received the Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz. Then in 2021, Steidl inaugurated a thirty-year-old dream of opening a Kunsthaus in Göttingen. As its Founding Director, Steidl has curated exhibitions of Roni Horn, William Kentridge, Documenta 17 and Jim Dine’s Storm of Memory. It is for this reason that Kunsthaus Göttingen and Gerhard Steidl were a natural choice to organize Dog on the Forge, the latest opus by Jim Dine, curated by Gerhard Steidl.

PALAZZO FLOORPLAN & EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

  • Palazzo Rocca
    Contarini Corfù, Sestiere Dorsoduro, 1057/D, 30123 Venezia

    Dates: 20 April 2024 – 21 July 2024

    Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

    FREE Admission

  • General Opening: Saturday, 20 April from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM

    VIP Pre-Opening: Wednesday, 17 April, Thursday, 18 April, Friday, 19 April from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM

  • Palazzo Rocca
    Contarini Corfù, Sestiere Dorsoduro, 1057/D, 30123 Venezia

    Wednesday, 17 April 2024

    9:00 AM – 11:00 AM, in the presence of the artist

  • Private tours of Jim Dine: Dog on the Forge at the Palazzo Rocca are now available.

    Book a private, one-on-one walkthrough or schedule an exclusive group tour.

    DETAILS

    Guide: Xiliary Twil, Art Asset Management Group

    Tours Available: 11-20 June, 2024 from 10 AM-5 PM CEST (Closed Monday 17 June)

    Duration: 30-45 minutes

    Intended Audience: journalists, curators, collectors, educators, critics, advisors

    Group Size: 25 persons max

    BOOK HERE

CONTACT

 

Palazzo Rocca
Contarini Corfù

Sestiere Dorsoduro, 1057/D,30123 Venezia

Hours
Tuesday – Sunday
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Press Europe

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