Edward Dugmore

Edward Dugmore (February 20, 1915 – June 13, 1996) was an American abstract expressionist painter with close ties to both the San Francisco and New York art worlds in the post-war era following World War II. Since 1950 he had more than two dozen solo exhibitions of his paintings in galleries across the United States. His paintings have been seen in hundreds of group exhibitions over the years.

Biography Edward Dugmore was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on February 20, 1915. He underwent traditional art training at the Hartford Art School before going to Kansas City in the summer of 1941 to study with Thomas Hart Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute. He entered the Marine Corps in 1943, and upon his discharge, taught painting and drawing at St. Joseph's College in West Hartford, Connecticut. In 1948, Dugmore took advantage of the G.I. Bill and moved out west to San Francisco to further his studies in art at the California School of Fine Arts. There he studied with Clyfford Still, who was influential on his development, both as an artist and a close friend. Dugmore also became a lifelong friend of fellow student and artist Ernest Briggs. During this time, he co-organized an artists collaborative gallery called the Metart Gallery. In 1951 he moved to Guadalajara, Mexico to study at the University of Guadalajara, where he received his M.F.A. He moved to New York City in 1952 and began exhibiting along with other Abstract Expressionist artists at the Stable Gallery, where he subsequently had three solo exhibitions.

His paintings have been in exhibitions in important museums, institutions and art galleries over the course of eight decades beginning in the 1940s. Some of the museums and institutions in which his paintings have been seen include: Ball State University Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina; Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the New School for Social Research, New York, New York; The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, Utah; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; New York University, New York, New York, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; The Kansas City Art Institute; The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Musee A. Lecuyr, Saint-Quentin, France (organized by MoMA); among others.

His work is in the permanent collection of several prominent museums including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C., the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Menil Collection in Houston.

Dugmore received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966, National Endowment for the Arts grants in 1976 and 1985, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. In 1992 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1994.

Edward Dugmore died June 13, 1996, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Chronology

Solo exhibitions

2014 – Ancient Evenings, Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, New York 2006 – Three Monumental Paintings, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 2003 – Selected Works: Mostly from the 1960s, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 2000 – Selected Works: 1956–1969, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1998 -The Passionate Eye, Joseloff Gallery, University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut 1997 – Lennon, Weinberg, New York, New York 1996 – Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, California 1994 – A Survey of Works on Paper, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1992 – Paintings of the 1960s, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1991 – Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, New York 1991 – Burning Bright, Paintings 1950–1959, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1990 – The Carlson Gallery, San Francisco, California 1975 – H. Marc Moyens, Alexandria, Virginia 1973 – Green Mountain Gallery, New York, New York 1972 – Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa 1965 – M.I.A. Gallery, Great Falls, Montana 1965 – Town Wharf Gallery, Blue Hill, Maine 1963 – Howard Wise Gallery, New York, New York 1961 – Howard Wise Gallery, New York, New York 1960 – Howard Wise Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio 1959 – Holland-Goldowsky Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 1956 – Stable Gallery, New York, New York 1954 – Stable Gallery, New York, New York 1953 – Sheldon Street Studio, Hartford, Connecticut 1953 – Stable Gallery, New York, New York 1950 – Metart Gallery, San Francisco, California

Selected public collections Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Ciba-Geigy Corporation, Ardsley, New York Civic Museum and Gallery, Udine, Italy Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC Housatonic Community College, Stratford, Connecticut Kresge Art Center, East Lansing, Michigan Laguna Beach Museum, Laguna Beach, California The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California University of Guadalajara, Mexico University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, Illinois Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, North Carolina Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts

Awards 1995 – Pollock-Krasner Foundation (Lifetime Achievement Award) 1992 – Ingram Merrill Foundation (Lifetime Achievement Award) 1985 – National Endowment for the Arts Grant 1980 – American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award 1976 – National Endowment for the Arts Grant 1966 – John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship 1962 – M.V. Kohnstamm Award, 65th Annual, Art Institute of Chicago

Teaching 1973–82 – Part-time instructor of painting at Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland 1972 – Visiting artist, Des Moines Art Center and Drake University, Iowa 1970 – Visiting artist, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 1965 – Artist-in-residence at the Montana Institute of Fine Arts under the Auspices of The American Federation of Arts, Great Falls, Montana 1964 – 1972 – Part-time instructor of painting at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York 1961 – 1962 – Visiting artist, University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, Illinois 1946 – 1949 – Teacher of painting and drawing, St. Joseph's College, West Hartford, Connecticut