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Helen Torr

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American Modernist painter (1886–1967)
Helen Torr
Self-Portrait c.1934-1935
Born(1886-11-22)November 22, 1886
Roxbury, Pennsylvania
DiedNovember 22, 1967(1967-11-22) (aged 81)
Bayshore, Long Island
NationalityAmerican
Alma materDrexel Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Known forPainter
MovementModernism
Spouse(s)Arthur Dove and Clive Weed

Helen S. "Reds" Torr (1886–1967) was an American early Modernist painter nicknamed "Reds" for her hair color. Torr worked alongside her artist husband Arthur Dove and friend Georgia O'Keeffe to develop a characteristically American style of Modernism in the 1920s.

Biography

Early life

Torr was born in Roxbury, Philadelphia in 1886. In 1906, Helen Torr won a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she studied under William Merritt Chase; later, she would go on to study at Drexel University. Her first marriage was to the cartoonist Clive Weed. Torr was reluctant to put her works in exhibitions and found encouragement through her friendships. Most of her work was not shown during her lifetime. Throughout her career, Torr tended to focus on the creation of both oil paintings and charcoal-based drawings.

Relationship with Arthur Dove

Torr met fellow artist Arthur Dove in Westport, Connecticut, which resulted in both artists leaving their first marriages. Around 1924 the couple settled aboard a sailboat anchored in Halesite on Long Island. In 1933, they moved to Dove's hometown, Geneva, New York, where they lived until 1938 when they moved to a cottage in Centerport on Long Island. They lived in the cottage until Dove's death in 1946. Throughout their life the couple suffered from economic hardship and lived in extreme poverty. Torr died in Bayshore, Long Island, New York, in 1967.

Arthur Dove-Helen Torr Cottage

Career

Torr's work was exhibited publicly only twice during her life, one of those at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery An American Place in 1933 as part of a group show. Torr outlived Dove by 21 years but never resumed painting, and requested that all her paintings and drawings be destroyed. Instead, her sister donated much of her work to the Heckscher Museum, which organized a show of her work in 1972. In 1980 the Graham Gallery in New York held a solo exhibition of her work. Some of her works are currently held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The cottage in which she and Dove resided was acquired in 1998 by the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, and in 2000, was accepted into the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios Program administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

List of works

Image Title of Work Information
Ship's Mast Medium: Charcoal on wove paper
Dimensions: 510 x 484 mm (20 1/16 x 19 1/16 in.)
Creation date: 1920-35
Evening Sounds Medium: Oil on composition board
Dimensions: 36.19 x 25.4 cm (14 1/4 x 10 in.)
Creation date: 1925-30
Crimson and Green Leaves Medium: Oil on plywood
Dimensions: 14 1/8 x 12 1/2 in. (35.9 x 31.8 cm)
Creation date: 1927
Purple and Green Leaves Medium: Oil on copper mounted on board
Dimensions: 20 1/4 x 15 1/4 in. (51.4 x 38.7 cm)
Creation date: 1927
Houses on A Barge Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 16 x 21 in. (40.6 x 53.3 cm)
Creation date: 1929
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Exhibitions

There are many public collections in the Heckscher Museum, Huntington Long Island, New York; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; and the Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln Nebraska.

  • New York. Graham Gallery. "Helen Torr, 1886–1967. In Private Life, Mrs. Arthur Dove," March 25–May 17, 1980, no. 7 (lent by the Estate of Helen Torr).
  • New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Still Life: 1915–1950," February 1, 1995–January 28, 1996, no catalogue.
  • New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arthur Dove/Helen Torr: Land and Water," February 14–June 14, 1998, no catalogue.
  • Albany. New York State Museum. "Twentieth-Century American Landscapes from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 29–November 4, 2001, no catalogue.
  • Oxford, England. Ashmolean Museum. "America's Cool Modernism: O'Keeffe to Hopper," March 23–July 22, 2018, no. 84.

References

  1. "Helen Torr". "Terra Foundation For American Art". Retrieved on 16 April 2014.
  2. "Terra Foundation for American Art: Collections". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Arthur and Helen Torr Dove papers, 1905-1975, 1920-1946". Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  4. "Terra Foundation for American Art: Collections". collection.terraamericanart.org. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  5. "TORR, Helen." Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed April 17, 2014.
  6. Everitt, David. "The Spotlight Shifts to Helen Torr, And Her View of Nature's Rhythms". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  7. “Terra Museum Display Sheds Light on Helen Torr's Commanding Style”, Chicago Tribune
  8. Tsujimoto, Karen (1982). Images of America : Precisionist Painting and Modern Photography. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. pp. 213–214. ISBN 0295959312.
  9. Metropolitan Museum of Art
  11. "The Newsday Center for Dove/Torr Studies". Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  12. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
  13. Boston Museum of Fine Arts
  14. The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
  15. 1000 Museums, Helen Torr
  16. The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
  17. "Helen Torr | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
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