Storm Clouds

Arthur Dove

1935 · Wax emulsion on canvas in artist-made frame · Modern and Contemporary Art

As its title suggests, this work portrays a stormy landscape, but one dramatically abstracted into a series of arched and rolling bands of color surrounding a large eyelike shape. Dove’s colors are the muted shades of earth and overcast sky, with the silvery, metallic sheen of the artist-made frame echoing and enhancing the grays of the composition. Like many avant-garde artists, Dove experimented with abstraction as a way to pursue an inner vision: he simplified his subjects to their most basic, organic forms, expressing a spiritual force beyond their tangible reality.

Artist

Arthur Dove

Date

1935

Medium

Wax emulsion on canvas in artist-made frame

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection, Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman, 2006