Adolf Dehn

Adolf Dehn - painter and printmaker - was born November 22, 1895 in Waterville, Minnesota.  He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art where he met and became close to Wanda Gag.  The two earned a scholarship to study at the Art Students League.  Dehn traveled to Europe after WWI, where he drew satirical images of people at the opera and burlesque houses, earning him acclaim. The images were used in “Vanity Fair” and other publications.  He returned to New York in 1929 and produced a remarkable body of lithographic images of the city before earning a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to travel to through the American southwest.

He is best known for his depictions of human eccentricities. His satirical images captured human nature in a fashion that had not been seen before.  He was elected to the National Academy in 1961 and his art is in hundreds of museums worldwide.