Dorothy Hood (American, 1918-2000). Crossing the Great Water, 1972. Oil on canvas. 70 x 59 inches (177.8 x 149.9 cm). Si...

Description

Dorothy Hood (American, 1918-2000)
Crossing the Great Water, 1972
Oil on canvas
70 x 59 inches (177.8 x 149.9 cm)
Signed upper right: D. Hood

PROVENANCE:
Meredith Long & Company, Houston;
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Dorothy Hood is a noted Abstract Expressionist, born in Bryan in 1919. Hood spent most of her childhood in isolation, she was an only child, her father traveled for business often, and her mother suffered from mental illness and would be periodically placed in sanitariums. Hood received a scholarship to attend the Rhode Island School of Design and would continue her education with the Art Students League of New York financed through her modeling career. She spent over twenty years in Mexico mingling with famous modern thinkers and artist such as Ramon Sender, Sophie Treadwell, Leonora Carrington, Rufino Tamayo, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. However, Hood was mostly influenced by her friend Jose Clemente Orozco. Hood returned to New York to continue her work and had success at the Willard Gallery and the Duveen-Graham Gallery. After settling back in Houston, Hood continued to produce moving works of art while teaching at various schools in the region. A poet as well as a painter, she became part of the circle of leading artists and writers of Europe and Mexico. This prolific painter is considered one of the first abstract surrealist blending Mexican synthetic surrealism and the American Color Field School. Her life and painting has inspired two films: "From the Heart," 1982, and "Dorothy Hood: The Color of Life," 1985. Heritage auctions is very excited to be offering this work at this time. The recent publication of Suzie Kalil's seminal book, Dorothy Hood: The Color of Being/Dorothy Hood: El Color del Ser and forthcoming exhibitions in Texas and Mexico have dramatically increased collector interest in her work.




More information about Dorothy Hood. See also: Hood, Dorothy Artist.



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