Arthur Dove Paints a Record

Arthur Dove, painting, and phonography

“…6 As Harry Cooper has noted, any consideration of Dove's paintings made from records must take into account what, in a literal sense, the act of painting while listening entailed for Dove. 7 Dove and his wife, the artist Helen Torr, together kept a diary for many years, from 1924 to 1945, with each contributing entries. We know from Torr's entries in 1926 and 1927 that it took Dove several days over the course of several months to complete the Rhapsody in Blue canvases and, as his son William reported, Dove played the Gershwin record repeatedly as he painted.…”