OTIS DOZIER (1904-1987)

Otis Dozier was born in Forney, Texas in 1904 and was raised on a farm in nearby Mesquite. Dozier enjoyed drawing and painting from an early age, and a visit to the Texas State Fair convinced him to pursue art as a vocation. Dozier recalled visiting the Fair’s rotunda and, there, seeing an early work by Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Dozier did not understand the image but was fascinated by it, later recalling that looked like blood and buttermilk to him; he just looked and looked; the newspaper said it was so great and he was willing to learn but couldn’t understand why it was so great. Dozier’s family moved to Dallas at the beginning of the 1920s, and it was there that he would receive artistic training under Vivian Aunspaugh, Cora Edge, and Frank Reaugh. Dozier would study with Aunspaugh for two years. She introduced Dozier to art history and spoke highly of the Impressionists, although she was cooler towards the Cubists and Fauvists who represented France’s new vogue.

Dozier became a member of the Dallas Artists League in the 1930s. He taught at the Dallas School of Creative Arts from 1936 to 1938 and was a significant member of the burgeoning Dallas art scene. Otis Dozier was a member of the cadre of Dallas artists known as the “Dallas Nine.” Though the disparate group of painters, printmakers and sculptors who composed the Nine could be broadly categorized as regionalists, they often displayed a decided fascination with the European avant-garde. This is especially true of Otis Dozier’s works, in which regionalist subject matter was often mingled with Surrealist and Cubist techniques. Starting in 1936, Dozier—as well as the other members of the Dallas Nine—began exhibiting their work at local, regional and national exhibitions. In 1936, Dozier, along with 713 artists from 47 states, attended the First National Exhibition of American Art at Rockefeller Center in New York. Dozier himself participated in numerous solo exhibitions during the mid-1940s and contributed to exhibitions in New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1945, Dozier returned to Dallas. He had been invited by fellow artist Jerry Bywaters to teach at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts School and in Southern Methodist University’s art history department. While teaching, Dozier continued to paint and his paintings from this period display a liveliness and uncommon sense of vitality, attributed by the artist to his vivid surroundings.

Classifying Otis Dozier as a Regionalist ignores his significance and diminishes his achievements. Dozier, like other members of Dallas’s art community, explored Regionalist subject matter, but he did so using sophisticated techniques and methods. He was unafraid of experimentation and eagerly incorporated techniques imported from abroad into his works. Recognized during his lifetime as an artist of national significance, it is vital that Dozier be remembered as an important contributor to American Modernism.

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

• 1904, Born in Forney

• 1920, Moves to Dallas

• 1920-22, Studies at Aunspaugh Art School

• Studies at the Dallas Art Institute

• 1929-32, 1935, Draftsman at the Dallas Power and Light Company

• 1936, Instructor at Dallas School of Creative Arts

• 1945-48, Instructor at Southern Methodist University, Dallas

• 1945-60s, Instructor at Dallas Museum of Fine Arts School

• 1987, Dies in Dallas

Selected Exhibitions

• 1927, Annual Texas Artists Exhibition, Fort Worth

• 1928-33, 1935, 1937-41, 1946-50, Annual Allied Arts Exhibition, Dallas

• 1932, 1935, 1946, 1957, 1961, 1978, 1985, Dallas Museum of Art

• 1933, Museum of Modern Art, New York

• 1936, Dallas Centennial Exposition, Dallas

• 1936, 1938, National Exhibition of American Art, Rockefeller Center, New York

• 1940, 1946-48, Texas General Exhibition

• 1942, 1944, 1952, 1960, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts

• 1944, Fort Worth Museum of Art

• 1948, 1955, Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio

• 1950, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

• 1927, Annual Texas Artists Exhibition, Fort Worth

• 1928-33, 1935, 1937-41, 1946-50, Annual Allied Arts Exhibition, Dallas

• 1932, 1935, 1946, 1957, 1961, 1978, 1985, Dallas Museum of Art

• 1933, Museum of Modern Art, New York

• 1936, Dallas Centennial Exposition, Dallas

• 1936, 1938, National Exhibition of American Art, Rockefeller Center, New York

• 1940, 1946-48, Texas General Exhibition

• 1942, 1944, 1952, 1960, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts

• 1944, Fort Worth Museum of Art

• 1948, 1955, Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio

• 1950, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Selected Public Collections

• Blanton Museum of Art, Austin

• Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon

• Dallas Museum of Art

• Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

• McNay Art Museum, San Antonio

• Witte Museum, San Antonio

• Denver Art Museum

• Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford

• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Otis Dozier

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