Pavel Zoubok Fine Art, in collaboration with Marc Selwyn Fine Art is pleased to announce a solo presentation of important works by pioneering artist Sari Dienes (1898-1992). Over her five-decade career, Dienes played a roll in the dominant artistic sensibilities of her time -- Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Fluxus and Feminist art.
This viewing room is part of Frieze New York's "Spotlight," a showcase of solo exhibitions by pioneering figures of the 20th century curated by Laura Hoptman (Executive Director of the Drawing Center, New York).
Our presentation will highlight Dienes' shift from painting and drawing in the 1940s towards her frottage works from the 1950s and 1960s. Dienes used frottage to incorporate urban textures such as manhole covers and sidewalks into compositions that prefigure the Pop layerings of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, both of whom acknowledged Dienes as a source of inspiration. The presentation will also include a selection of early "drip" paintings that reflect the larger transition from Surrealism to action painting in American art as well as examples of her exuberant explorations in mixed media assemblage.
Sari Dienes was born in Debrecen, Hungary in 1898. From 1928-1935, she moved to Paris and then London where she studied with Fernand Léger, Amédée Ozenfant, André Lhote and Henry Moore. In 1939, she relocated to New York where she would remain until her death. Upon taking up residency in the storied Sherwood Studios in 1945, a home to artists and writers since the nineteenth century, Dienes met and began a lifelong friendship with composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham. She quickly established herself in the epicenter of the art world during the 1950s, influencing artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Mark Rothko and Ray Johnson. Dienes exhibited nationally and internationally from the early 1940s, with notable exhibitions at Betty Parsons Gallery and A.I.R. Gallery. Her work has been included in major museum exhibitions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Wadsworth Atheneum and The Drawing Center. Recent acquisitions include the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney, Kunstmuseum Basel, The Menil and Virginia Museum of Fine Art.