Edward Dugmore (February 20, 1915 – June 13, 1996) was an

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

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 The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. The 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 The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

and moved out west to San Francisco to further his studies in art at the

California School of Fine Arts San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

. There he studied with

Clyfford Still Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American Painting, painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediat ...

, 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 The University of Guadalajara () is a public university, public research university located in Guadalajara, Mexico. It was originally established in 1586 and officially founded on 12 February 1791 as the Royal and Pontifical University of Gu ...

, where he received his M.F.A. He moved to New York City in 1952 and began exhibiting along with other

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

artists at the

Stable Gallery The Stable Gallery, originally located on West 58th Street in New York City, was founded in 1953 by Eleanor Ward. The Stable Gallery hosted early solo New York exhibitions for artists including Marisol Escobar, Robert Indiana and Andy Warhol. His ...

, 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 Muncie ( ) is a city in Delaware County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. It is located in East Central Indiana about northeast of Indianapolis. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 65,195, down from 70,085 in the 2010 c ...

;

Greenville County Museum of Art The Greenville County Museum of Art (GCMA) is an art museum located in Greenville, South Carolina. Its collections focus mainly on American art, and its holdings include works by Andrew Wyeth, Jasper Johns (raised in South Carolina), William Hen ...

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville ( ; ) is a city in Greenville County, South Carolina, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, sixth-most pop ...

; Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago,

Worcester Art Museum The Worcester Art Museum houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. The museum opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Its holdings include Roman mosaics, Europe ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

; The

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

Amon Carter Museum The Amon Carter Museum of American Art (also known as the Carter) is located in Fort Worth, Texas, in the city's cultural district. The museum's permanent collection features paintings, photography, sculpture, and works on paper by leading arti ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

;

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art The Block Museum of Art is a free public art museum located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The Block Museum was established in 1980 when Chicago art collectors Mary (daughter of Albert Lasker) and Leigh B. Block ...

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

, The

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art is a former art museum in Washington, D.C., that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Founded in 1869 by philanthropist William Wilson Corco ...

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

; the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

; The

Portland Museum of Art The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine. History The PMA use ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA) is an accredited academic art museum focused on modern and contemporary art, located at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, Logan, Utah. NEHMA was founded in 1982 with the ceramic collection of phil ...

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public university, public land grant colleges, land-grant research university with its main campus in Logan, Utah, United States. Founded in 1888 under the Morrill Land-Grant Acts as Utah's federal ...

Logan, Utah Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 United States Census, 2020 census recorded the population at 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city of the Logan metropolitan area, which includes Ca ...

;

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

;

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

;

American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqua ...

;

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

;

Oakland Museum of California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

;

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

; The

Hudson River Museum The Hudson River Museum, located in Trevor Park in Yonkers, New York, is the largest museum in Westchester County, and features the only public planetarium in the county. While often considered an art museum due to its extensive collection of Hu ...

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...

;

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

;

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

; The

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

;

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

; Musee A. Lecuyr,

Saint-Quentin, France Saint-Quentin (; ; ) is a city in the Aisne department, Hauts-de-France, northern France. It has been identified as the ''Augusta Veromanduorum'' of antiquity. It is named after Saint Quentin of Amiens, who is said to have been martyred ther ...

(organized by

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

); among others. His work is in the permanent collection of several prominent museums including the

in Buffalo, the

Corcoran Gallery The Corcoran Gallery of Art is a former art museum in Washington, D.C., that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Founded in 1869 by philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran ...

in Washington D.C., the

in Washington, D.C., the

in Minneapolis, and the

Menil Collection The Menil Collection, located in Houston, Texas, refers either to a museum that houses the art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs a ...

in Houston. Dugmore received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1966,

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

grants in 1976 and 1985, and the

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing funding to visual artists internationally to further their artistic practices. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expr ...

Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. In 1992 he was elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

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 The Anita Shapolsky Gallery is an art gallery that was founded in 1982 by Anita Shapolsky. It is currently located at 152 East 65th Street, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, in New York City. The gallery specializes in 1950s and 1960s abstract ...

, 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 The Des Moines Art Center is an art museum with an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art and mixed media. It was established in 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa. History The Art Center traces its roots to 1916, when the Des Moines A ...

, 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 –

, New York, New York *1954 –

, New York, New York *1953 – Sheldon Street Studio, Hartford, Connecticut *1953 –

, 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 –

(Lifetime Achievement Award) *1992 –

Ingram Merrill Foundation The Ingram Merrill Foundation was a private foundation established in the mid-1950s by poet James Merrill (1926-1995), using funds from his substantial family inheritance.J. D. McClatchyBraving the Elements ''The New Yorker'', 27 March 1995. Retriev ...

(Lifetime Achievement Award) *1985 –

Grant *1980 – American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award *1976 –

Grant *1966 –

John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated dis ...

*1962 – M.V. Kohnstamm Award, 65th Annual,

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

References

Bibliography

April Kingsle
''Suitcase Paintings, Small Scale Abstract Expressionism''
Georgia Museum of Art, 2007, page 56, plate 41 Marika Herskovic
''American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey,''
(New York School Press, 2003.) . pp. 110–113 Marika Herskovic
''New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,''
(New York School Press, 2000.) . p. 31; p. 36; pp. 118–121 Nicholas Fox Weber, essa
''The Passionate Eye – Paintings by Edward Dugmore''
published by the Joseloff Gallery, Hartford Art School, 1998 Susan Landaue
''The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism''
Laguna Art Museum, 1996 Stuart Shedletsk
''Still Working: Underknown Artists of Age in America''
Parsons School of Design, 1994 Dore Ashton, essa
''Edward Dugmore, Burning Bright: Paintings 1950–1959''
published by Manny Silverman Gallery, 1991 Irving Sandle
''The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism''
Harper and Row, 1970

External links

*
Archives of American Art, ''An Oral History Interview with Edward Dugmore, May 13 – June 9 1994''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dugmore, Edward 1915 births 1996 deaths Abstract expressionist artists 20th-century American painters American male painters Artists from New York (state) American modern painters University of Hartford alumni 20th-century American male artists