Adrian Dornbush (1900 - 1970)

6. Flower Still Life c. 1931

Oil on canvas, 24 ½ x 19 ½ inches (unframed), 32 x 27 inches (framed), signed and inscribed “Adrian Dornbush/ Flower Still Life” verso, a remnant of exhibition label verso, stamped “1454” verso, original frame

$5,250

Exhibited

i) Midwestern Artist’s Exhibition Representative Work from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska & Colorado, Kansas City Art Institute, February 1 to March 2, 1931, no. 34 (see catalog with a listing of work with this title); and ii) Special Display and Sale of Late Oil Paintings Produced by Cedar Rapids Own Artists from the Little Gallery, at Newman’s Department Store, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March, 1932 (see [Advertisement], The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), March 15, 1932 – listing a work with this title, together with paintings by fourteen other artists, including Grant Wood, Marvin Cone and David McCosh)

About the Artist

Adrian J. Dornbush was born in Groningen, Holland in 1900. He is known for modernist and regionalist landscapes, portraiture, and still-life paintings. Dornbush earned a B.A in 1918 at the University of Wisconsin. He also studied in Europe for two years and at the University of Kansas. Dornbush organized the Flint Institute of Art and was named its director. He also worked as an administrator and instructor at various midwestern institutions, including Dubuque Iowa public schools, the Dubuque Art Association, and the University of Kansas. He established the art instruction program at the Little Gallery in Cedar Rapids and was a co-founder and the director of the Stone City Art Colony. In 1934, Dornbush led the Key West, Florida art project of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Dornbush maintained a close relationship with Edward Rowan and served with him in several New Deal art projects, including as the senior administrator for the Tennessee Valley area and the Special Skills branch of the WPA. Dornbush’s work was exhibited widely across the country as part of traveling exhibitions from public works projects. Dornbush is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and other standard references.