Lost Shells
1985
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
hand-painted watercolor on etching, with drypoint, and power-tool drypoint on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 76.2 × 52.71 cm (30 × 20 3/4 in.) plate: 56.83 × 45.4 cm (22 3/8 × 17 7/8 in.) overall: 76.2 × 105.73 cm (30 × 41 5/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Artist
Accession Number
2014.11.47
Art Historical Context
Jim Dine’s *Lost Shells* (1985) exemplifies the artist’s lifelong fascination with everyday objects as vessels for memory and emotion. Though best known for his contributions to Pop Art in the 1960s, by the mid-1980s Dine had developed a more introspective practice, returning repeatedly to personal motifs rendered through vigorous mark-making. Here, delicate shells appear fragmented and scattered across the sheet, evoking themes of loss, collection, and the passage of time. The work’s hybrid technique is especially striking. Dine combined traditional etching and drypoint with unconventional p...
About the Artist
Jim Dine
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 ...