Dorothy Hood
| Dorothy Rose Hood | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 27, 1919 Bryan, Texas |
| Died | October 28, 2000 (aged 81) Houston, Texas |
| Cause of death | Breast cancer |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Painter |
| Movement | Modernism |
| Spouse(s) | José María Velasco Maidana |
| Awards |
|
| Images | |
|---|---|
 Slideshow of Dorothy Hood's works, Art Museum of South Texas |
|
| Video | |
 Dorothy Hood: The Color of Life, documentary |
Dorothy Hood (August 27, 1919 - October 28, 2000) was an American painter in the Modernist tradition. Her work is held in private collections and at several museums, most notably the Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Her preferred mediums were oil paint and ink.
Hood was born in Bryan, Texas and raised in Houston. She was an only child. Hood was of German and Swedish descent, and experienced a strict, Episcopalian upbringing. Her father was a banker who often traveled out of town on business. Hood's mother encouraged Dorothy to pursue her artistic talents, but Dorothy was raised mainly by household servants due to her mother's mental illness that resulted in long sanitarium stays. Hood would visit her mother at the sanitarium on school breaks. Hood's mother held Victorian ideals of womanhood, yet had an unconventional side which lead Hood to wonder about which side was her true mother. As a child, she experienced a lingering feeling of isolation. During the time in which she grew up, children were expected to remain out of the way of adults; without siblings, Hood was often left on her own. She often spent her vacations at vacation spas, an activity usually reserved for adults. Her parents' subsequent divorce led Hood to take "refuge in drawing."
In high school, an art teacher submitted her work to a competition and she won a National Scholastic Scholarship. Hood went to the Rhode Island School of Design on this four-year scholarship in the early 1930s. Afterwards, she took classes at the Art Students League of New York, and earned money working as a model. Her time as a model influenced her to enjoy wearing fanciful clothing and to carry herself with poise, which she was later known for. She did not feel that her formal education was sufficient for her development as an artist other than providing her with an introduction to great art and other students.
Hood went to Mexico on what was intended to be a short vacation. She immediately fell in love with the country and its intellectual climate and aesthetic, and ended up spending twenty years in Mexico (1941-1961). There, she befriended many European and Mexican artists and intellectuals. They adopted her into their circle, and Hood, for the first time, developed the types of friendships she had longed for as a child. During this time, she was part of a group of intellectuals who were interested in critiquing the world around them. Her friends and acquaintances at the time included novelist Ramon Sender, playwright Sophie Treadwell, and painters Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. She was considered to be good friends with Carrington.She also associated with writer Luis Buñuel and artists Miguel Covarrubias, Rufino Tamayo, Diego Rivera, and Frida Kahlo. It was in Mexico that Hood began her career as an artist. She lived in meager conditions in Mexico, and her works were small in size, due in part to her small studio space. She experimented with anti-war drawings during the Spanish Civil War. Mayan and Aztec hieroglyphs were central to Hood's art in her early career. In Mexico, Hood was met with more respect as a woman artist, and her drawings were sought after.
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Wikipedia