Dorothy Heller (1917-2003)
MYTH AND SYMBOL
The Painting of Dorothy Heller
“Myth and Symbol: The Paintings of Dorothy Heller” comprises two series of paintings illustrating the artist’s use of myth and symbol. The black and silver and black and gold paintings are a series of paintings called Within the Temple.
“At a time when great pressures are exerted on artists to meet the changing art market, it is most reassuring to find a painter with the conviction to follow her own direction. Such a painter is Dorothy Heller… Ms. Heller’s work clearly reflects its sequential development. As each canvas evolves from the previous ones, so is its significance transmitted to future canvasses, with the overall result forming a sequential corpus of work. These paintings coupled with on esoteric iconography of the highest quality, is the contribution of Dorothy Heller.”
Robert B. Tonkin
Chief Curator, John and Marble Ringling Museum of Art
Artist: Dorothy Heller
Title: Little Sun
Date: 1962
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 22.5''h x 17.75''w,
Framed: 24.25''h x 19.5''w
Provenance: Pending
Private Collection
“Dorothy Heller represents more than a unique anomaly on the American art scene: quite starkly, few contemporary painters can match her moral courage and faith in resolutely probing beneath the flashy surface anguish of modern consciousness for a profound and - there is no other word for it - religious reconciliation of the enigmatic antinomies of human existence, Her work is light years beyond all the superficial “op” artists, “pop” artists, and slick but unprofound abstractionists who have obscured the past several decades.”
Waldemar Hansen Author of “The Peacock Throne”
1978 Betty Parsons Gallery
“Dorothy Heller is a constantly evolving artist whose technical inventiveness suggests a powerful synthesis of many cultures, and is in keeping with the spirit of the times.”
Elinore Lester
“Dorothy Heller has created a new language from the mythic sources of the mystic cults of both East and West.”
Cindy Nemser Arts Magazine, Oct. 1972