River Landscape 1956 - 1958

Dorothy Dehner made this print titled River Landscape using etching and engraving, and it's all about the push and pull of shapes. I can imagine Dehner working on the metal plate, layering lines and forms, letting the composition breathe and shift with each mark. There's something almost architectural about the way she’s built this landscape, but also something very human, very intuitive. She might have been thinking of the Hudson River School painters, like Cole, Church, and Bierstadt, but she's not trying to copy nature. She's trying to find a new way to represent the power and mystery of the natural world using geometric forms. I see in Dehner's linear arrangements something of Dove and Hartley, a continuation of their abstract language. The contrast between the light and dark areas creates a dynamic rhythm, a sense of movement that draws you in and invites you to explore. And it’s that dialogue between artists across time that keeps the conversation alive, that inspires us to see the world in new and unexpected ways.