Jim Dine, born James Lewis Dine on June 16, 1935, in Cincinnati, Ohio, grew up in a family of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who owned a hardware store, where he spent much time surrounded by tools that would later become central motifs in his art. After his mother's death at age 12, he largely cared for himself, fostering an early independence. Dine attended Walnut Hills High School and took night classes at the Art Academy of Cincinnati starting in 1952, studying under Abstract Expressionist painter Paul Chidlaw. He continued at the University of Cincinnati with printmaking instructor Donald Roberts, then spent six months under Ture Bengtz at the School of Fine Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, before earning a BFA from Ohio University in 1957.

In 1958, Dine moved to New York City, co-founding the Judson Gallery with Claes Oldenburg and immersing himself in the avant-garde scene alongside Allan Kaprow and Robert Whitman. He pioneered Happenings—proto-performance art events like *The Smiling Workman* (1959), where he painted his body and jumped through a canvas, and *Car Crash* (1960)—challenging Abstract Expressionism's elitism by blending art with everyday life. Though included in the seminal 1962 Pop Art survey "New Painting of Common Objects," Dine rejected the label, aligning more with Neo-Dada influences like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. His style fused expressive painting with assemblage, featuring autobiographical icons such as tools, bathrobes (as self-portraits), hearts, and later Venuses, Pinocchios, and birds, executed in vivid colors across painting, prints, sculpture, and poetry.

Dine's oeuvre includes iconic series like *Double Isometric Self-Portrait* (1964), a bathrobe painting with hardware; *Ten Winter Tools* (1972) lithographs; *Hearts in the Meadow* (1970); and bronze Venus sculptures *Looking Toward the Avenue* (1989). Later works ventured into charred wood Pinocchio figures like *Two Thieves One Liar* (2007) and photographic books such as *Birds* (2001). Married first to Nancy Minto (three sons) and later to photographer Diana Michener (2005), he has lived between Vermont, London (1967–71), and now Walla Walla, Washington.

Dine's legacy endures through major retrospectives at the Whitney (1970), Guggenheim (1999), and National Gallery of Art (2004), influencing Performance Art, Fluxus, and Neo-Pop artists like Jeff Koons by elevating personal symbols over consumer gloss. At 90, he remains prolific, his introspective assemblages bridging Pop's boldness with emotional depth, held in collections worldwide from the MoMA to the Tate.