My life and my perceptions are the subjective drivers for the pictures I make. Making a painting is, for me, an exploratory process toward understanding, not an expository declaration of a position already held. Thus, I don’t make pictures with a specific content in mind. I distrust intentions; mine more than anyone else’s. Far more important is the subjective content that is revealed regardless of one’s intentions. I have said that I start pictures with a hunch, just a positive feeling that a certain subject might be wonderful, or some composition interesting, or some quality of color special. (Maybe “wonderful,” “interesting” and “special” could be called the intentions?) For me the content is discovered during the process, maybe developed further, but it is seldom known at the beginning. There is a deep satisfaction when a picture is finished and at that point I usually understand what kind of statement I have made.
Artist Biography
I grew up with art, and books, in the house: my father was a professional sculptor and my mother was a part time painter. I owe a great deal to the ambiance of that household, to my parents and to their encouragement; but above all to the books. There were so many books in that house, all kinds of books, encyclopediae and dictionaries, books on nature, music, literary classics and art. There were many years of National Geographics, which my father rescued from the trash during a public library clean-out. As a childI already knew a great deal of the work by Rodin, Velasquez, Giotto and many others, although I couldn't properly pronounce their names.
Since then I have earned several degrees and I've taught in a major art school for many years. I discovered Caravaggio while living in Rome in 1974-76. And I rediscovered him again in 2001-03. I have had the good fortune to know, and learn from, many of my colleagues and all of my students. Yet when I began to write a short biographical sketch that included events significant to my career, I could not resist writing about that house in which I grew up, and all those books.
Collection
Art Institute of Chicago Ball State University Art Museum Cleveland Museum of Art National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC Neuberger Museum, State Univ. of New York, Purchase, NY Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Free Library J. B. Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, KY Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA Yale University Art Museum United States Department of State, Washington, DC American Embassy, Tokyo St. Paul Council of the Arts Carlton College, Northfield, MN University of Delaware, Newark, DE University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Miami-Dade Community College, Miami, FL Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA American Telephone and Telegraph,NYC Amity Art Foundation, Woodbridge, CT ARA Services, Inc., New York ARCO Chemical Corp., Philadelphia, PA The Boston Company, Boston, MA Chemical Bank, New York Citibank, New York Gallerie Claude Bernard, Paris Intrav, Inc., St. Louis, MO Kemper Insurance Co., Chicago Mellon Bank, Pittsburgh, PA Meidinger, Inc., Louisville, KY Met Life, Inc., New York,NY Michigan Bell, Inc. Moody’s Investment Service, Inc. NYC Price Waterhouse, Philadelphia, PA Readers Digest, Inc., New York, NY Stephens, Inc., Little Rock, AK
Exhibitions
Solo
2017 Daniel Dallmann, Recent Work, Cerulean Arts Collective, Philadelphia, PA
2016 Still-Life-Space, paintings: Daniel Dallmann, Gravers Lane Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2015 Time and Space: 27 works by Daniel Dallmann..., Duke Gallery, Wallingford, PA
2012 18 Little Paintings, Galleria La Linea Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
2011 From Life:Large Works by Daniel Dallmann, Grey Gallery, Williamsport, PA
Self Images - Paintings, The Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Self Images - Paintings and Drawings, Greestone Gallery, Lincolnshire, UK
2008 Spoons - Paintings by Daniel Dallmann, Davidson Contemporary, Seattle, WA
2001 Daniel Dallmann, Charles More Gallery, Philadelphia
1998 Dancers and Dreamers, Lied Center for the Arts, Omaha, NE
Little Sleepers and Other Small Works -Paintings, Prints & Drawings, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
1997 Paintings and Drawings, Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA
The Kendall Gallery of Miami-Dade Community Colleges, Miami, FL
1994 Paintings, Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA
1993 Etchings, Lithographs & Drawings, Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA
New Paintings, Tatistcheff & Co., New York, NY
1989 Recent Work, J. Rosenthal Fine Arts, Ltd., Chicago, IL
1988 Recent Figure Works: Paintings, Prints, Drawings, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
1987 Recent Paintings, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, NY
1986 Landscapes & Portraits, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA
1984 Recent Paintings, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, NY
1982 Selected Prints, 1974-1981, Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
1980 Recent Paintings, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, NY
1976 Gallery Four, Alexandria, VA
Tyler School of Art, Rome, Italy
Gallery Four, Alexandria, VA
1974 Ronnie Brenner Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1973 Kramer Gallery, St. Paul, MN
Hemingway Gallery, Nantucket, MA
1972 The Print Club, Philadelphia, PA
Selected, Recent, Invitation and Group Exhibitions
2019 Painted, the 4th Biennial Exhibition, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati OH
