OJAC presents over 75 works by Dickson Reeder in the Texas Moderns series. The series provides insight into creative mid-twentieth century visual artists whose works were often inventive or experimental, yet not fully accepted by the general population in Texas more accustomed to traditional forms or styles of art.

Dickson Reeder (1912-1970) was born in Fort Worth, Texas and graduated from Fort Worth Central (later Pascal) High School in 1930. It was then his talent in portraiture became apparent. To further his skills, he relocated to New York City to study with several artists known for their work in the genre. By 1934 he had established his own portrait studio back in his hometown. In 1936, the artist Sallie Gillespie urged him to travel to Europe where he eventually settled in Paris and worked with the Russian theatrical designer Alexandra Exter. Exter made use of non-objective abstract forms for her innovative sets and costumes. It was while working with Exter that Reeder met artist, and future spouse, Flora Blanc. Flora introduced him to the English artist and master printmaker Stanley William Hayter. At Hayter’s Atelier 17 print studio, Reeder discovered his passion for experimental printmaking, creating non-objective abstract prints that were unlike his more formal and traditional approaches to portraiture. Yet, from that point, he developed work in abstraction alongside his more formal and traditional portraiture pursuits.

Dickson and Flora Blanc Reeder married in 1937 in New York City, returning to Fort Worth in 1940 where they became active in the contemporary art community through the Fort Worth Art Association. Eventually, both became associated with a core group of like-minded artists—the Fort Worth Circle. Reeder continued to pursue portrait commissions with many of these works being included in numerous exhibitions and awarded prizes which elevated his reputation as a visual artist. After World War II, Dickson and Flora established the Reeder Children’s School of Theatre and Design in Fort Worth, recruiting artists and musicians to collaborate and assist in producing the school’s plays. For the next 12 years of the school’s existence, Reeder designed all the stage sets, along with hundreds of costumes, masks, headdresses, and props.

Reeder returned to Paris to study with Stanley William Hayter in 1959. During this period, he was developing and creating new work for his 1960 retrospective at the Fort Worth Art Center that would demonstrate the diversity of his artistic skills and interests. He continued to work and exhibit his work throughout the US and Europe until his death in 1970.

(Bio information derived from Intimate Modernism: Fort Worth Circle in the 1940s, by Scott Grant Barker and Jane Myers.)

Generously supported by The Charles E. Jacobs Foundation, Doris Miller & Don Fitzgibbons, Scott Chase & Debra Witter, John & Ginger Dudley, and Margaret & Jim Dudley