Edwin Dickinson was an enormously prescient painter of both perplexing symbolic images and expressionist paintings. He was much admired by Abstract Expressionists including Willem de Kooning, Jack Tworkov and Arshile Gorky, with Tworkov declaring “Edwin Dickinson was the greatest painter America has produced – in any century.” Along with his bravura one-sitting landscapes (which he termed premier coups), Dickinson’s sensually elusive portraits and hauntingly enigmatic observational paintings show both his grounding in 19th century tradition as well as his ruminative and probing artistic vision.
For over 25 years, Driscoll Babcock has been exclusive agent for the heirs of Edwin Dickinson. In that role, the gallery has staged numerous solo exhibitions, including Edwin Dickinson: A Vision of Coast and Sea (1985), Edwin Dickinson 1891-1978: Centennial Exhibition (1991), Edwin Dickinson, Drawings (1993), Edwin Dickinson: Revelations (1996), Edwin Dickinson (2001), and Edwin Dickinson: In Retrospect (2011). Additionally, Dickinson’s work has been shown in over 75 solo exhibitions in major museums and galleries worldwide including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; The National Academy of Design, New York; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. His work has been included in group exhibitions worldwide including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art, and The Brooklyn Museum, all in New York; Musee National de Luxembourg, Paris, France; American National Exhibition, Moscow, Russia and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Today Dickinson’s work is represented in virtually every major American public collection, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both in NY; the Art Institute of Chicago, IL and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, CA. Over the past two decades, Driscoll Babcock has sold more than 100 Dickinson works to important public and private collections throughout the United States.
Dickinson studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League, where he studied under William Merritt Chase. He also spent three summers studying with Charles Hawthorne in Provincetown, MA. Following his service in the Naval Reserve and additional academic training in Paris, he returned to the states and held academic positions at multiple institutions including the Cooper Union, the Arts Students League and the Brooklyn Museum School. Dickinson was featured as the principal American painter at the XXXIV Venice Biennial Exhibition.
Born in Seneca Falls, NY, Edwin Dickinson lived and worked in Provincetown, MA and New York, NY before moving to Cape Cod, MA where he lived until his death in 1978.
