Dow, Arthur W. (Arthur Wesley), 1857-1922

Dow was born in 1857 in Ipswich, MA; received a classical education under private instruction; studied art in Boston and in Paris, as a student of Boulanger and Lefebvre; his pictures were exhibited in Paris in 1886-87, where he won an honorable mention in 1889; won medal at the Buffalo Exposition; became curator of Japanese art at the Eastern Museum of Fine Arts, instructor of art at the Pratt Institute (1895-1904), instructor of composition at the Art Students' League in NY (1897-1903), director of the Ipswich Summer School of Art, and in 1904 professor of fine arts at Teachers College, Columbia Univ.; publications include Composition : a series of exercises selected from a new system of art education (c1899), Theory and practice of teaching art (1908), and Constructive art teaching (1913); he died on Dec. 13, 1922.

Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) was a landscape painter, teacher, and printmaker from Ipswich, Mass. and New York, N.Y.

Dow taught art at Pratt Institute, 1895-1904, and at Teachers College, Columbia University, 1904-1922. Influenced by Ernest Fenollosa, Dow introduced principles of Japanese art to Americans and made a major impact on art education. Published COMPOSITION 1899 and wrote many other books and articles on art. Max Weber and Georgia O'Keeffe were among his students.

Biography

The Arthur Wesley Dow Association was founded at UCLA in 1922 to promote the ideas and teachings of artist and educator Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922). Dow, a native of Ipswich, Mass., studied painting at the Acade'mie Julien in Paris and Brittany. He returned to the United States to paint and teach, establishing the Ipswich Summer School which offered classes in arts and crafts. His exposure to a book of prints by the Japanese woodblock artist Hokusai profoundly influenced his ideas on art and aesthetics. He rejected many of the traditions he had been taught and immersed himself in the study of world cultures. In his textbook, Composition (1899) he outlined the principles of teaching art synthesized from his studies--namely line, "notan" and color. He described "notan" as "... a Japanese word meaning 'dark,light' ... the quantity of light reflected, or the massing of tones of different values". The ideas expressed in Composition influenced many generations of young artists and expanded the traditional views of art education and expression. Many of Dow's students taught in colleges and universities throughout the country and a number of them held positions of prominence in California. Upon his death in 1922, the Arthur Wesley Dow Association was formed at UCLA "... to unite for more effective service, those who wish to preserve and advance the underlying philosophy of Mr. Dow's teaching. We believe with Mr. Dow that 'The true purpose of art teaching is the education of the whole people for appreciation'."

Chronology

Arthur Wesley Dow, landscape painter, printmaker, photographer, and influential art educator, was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts on April 6, 1857, the eldest son of Mary Patch and David Dow. As a young man, he showed interest in the colonial history of Ipswich and together with Reverend Augustine Caldwell, he produced the serial Antiquarian Papers from 1875 to 1880, which featured Dow's drawings of local colonial architecture. It was Caldwell who advised him to pursue formal art instruction and in 1880 Dow began studying in the Boston studio of James M. Stone.

Like many aspiring American artists of his generation, Dow traveled to Paris for further art instruction. Between 1884 and 1889, the artist alternated between spending time in Paris, where he had enrolled in the Académie Julian, and in Brittany where he painted landscapes en plein air . During this period he produced landscape paintings that were accepted into the Paris Salon and exhibited to moderate success back in the United States.

Shortly after his return to Ipswich, Dow took a studio in Boston, where he hoped to attract students and began an extremely fertile and successful period as an art educator. He began studying Japanese art, particularly the compositional elements employed in Japanese prints, which he synthesized with Western art techniques and utilized in teaching composition and design. In addition to seeing students in his Boston studio, he began the Ipswich Summer School of Art, which continued into 1907. Pratt Institute hired Dow as an art instructor in 1895 and he remained there until 1904, when he was appointed the Director of Fine Arts of the Columbia University Teacher's College, a position he retained until his death in 1922. Between 1897 and 1903, he also taught at the Art Students League.

In 1899 his seminal book, Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers, was published. Composition illustrated Dow's teaching method, which focused on the compositional elements of line, notan (a Japanese word for the balance of light and dark in a composition) and color. The book underwent several printings and art schools across the United States adopted the Dow method. Max Weber, Georgia O'Keefe and the photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn were among the artists who personally benefited from Dow's instruction. Through his teaching, publications, and public speeches, Arthur Wesley Dow played an important role in shaping modern American art.