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Vancekirklanddots
Vance Kirkland was an American painter known for his dot paintings created between 1963-1981. He began creating paintings using dots of paint dropped or flung onto the canvas to form imperfect circles. Later, he developed more controlled dot patterns and techniques combining both concepts. Due to his short stature, Kirkland suspended himself above large canvases to apply dots of different sizes and colors meticulously using wooden dowels. He founded an art school in Denver in 1929 and helped develop art programs at universities in the area until retiring in 1969. Kirkland continued developing his dot techniques until his death in 1981.
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Vancekirklanddots
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- 2. Vance Kirkland Dots -Dots and more dots
- 3. • His earliestdotted paintings of 1963-66 were created by dropping discrete quantities of paint from various distances so they would spread to form imperfect circles. • He flung his paint in such a way that it splattered to form discs of color. • The artist himself called his work discs or circles, but he accepted the word dots to describe his paintings. Painting number 10 ~ 1964
- 4. later “DOT” WORK became verycontrolled dot patterns 1970--1971
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- 6. • Kirkland wasonly 5'3" and his paintings were so large that he could not reach the center of the paintings from the sides of his worktable. So he suspended himself above. • Setting above the paintings enabled Kirkland to, in a sense, submerge himself in the creation of his works. • The techniques he developed required his canvas to be laid flat on a table top so that he, and not gravity, could control the flow of the paint. • He poured and spooned the mixtures from baby-food jars and moved them with rags, mopping up the water when it had deposited the paint just where he wanted it. • He placed each dot with a wooden dowel, dipped once in color and dabbed two, maybe three times before it required a refill.
- 7. Sadly, Kirkland wasnever photographed at work in his straps. His assistants staged and photographed a re-creation of the scene using fresher and narrower nylon slings to help us imagine the artist at work. Everyone who sees those now- empty straps must wonder, if just for a second, what it feels like to fly with a paint-loaded brush or dowel in their hand.
- 8. Kirkland floated mixturesof oil paint & water to onto the canvas ~ then added dots of different sizes and colors meticulously on the painting using wooden dowels
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- 10. Enlarged area of-Blue mysteries near the sun ~ 1976
- 11. Examples of thesize of his canvases
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- 13. Vance Kirkland first arrivedin Denver at the age of twenty-four in 1929, when he became the founding director of the Art School at the University of Denver; after graduating from Cleveland Institute of Art . He stayed at the school until 1932, when he got into a dispute with the university. They weren’t willing to give BFAs to the art students.
- 14. He instead openedthe Kirkland School of Art. The first art school in Denver. Kirkland worked with University of Colorado in Denver to exchange classes with CU. Art students at Kirkland’s school then could apply their credits towards a university degree. Kirkland School of Art did so well that Kirkland was rehired in 1946. Kirkland eventually returned to the University of Denver (DU) as head of the art school and chairman of the arts & humanities dept. Kirkland remained until 1969.
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- 16. "The Dot Paintings"/Energyin Space Abstractions 1980 Final painting- Kirkland died the next year- 1981
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